Posted By: Bala
Over the last few years, innovation activity has become concentrated in clusters or ecosystems where technology, finance, academia, industry, and entrepreneurs all rub shoulders to maximize the free flow of cutting-edge ideas. Such clusters have emerged around the world, inspired by Silicon Valley. The recipe is slowly changing, however.
COVID has accelerated that trend such that all companies worldwide, not just the privileged clusters should have to soar past their comfort zones and get creative in their leadership, or otherwise become irrelevant. None of us want that, so, here are some timely tips to stay ahead of the coming innovation tsunami.
5 Ways You Can Innovate at Work Every Single Day
Your organization will thrive if you just cause ongoing, incremental progress. No company has ever died from innovating carefully. When one firm displaces another, it’s almost always the more innovative firm that thrives, whether that innovation is radical or incremental is not of the greatest importance, because it’s the mindset of innovation that makes the difference. So encouraging daily incremental innovation in the workplace is a good low-risk and much easier way to stay at the head of the race. Innovative workplaces are more interesting and enjoyable and lead to greater employee satisfaction. Here are five ways to innovate at work with less effort every single day.
1. Inspiration All Around
Encourage your workforce to add personal elements to the environment. These could be discoveries from a magazine or even text from an intriguing or information-rich email.
- Experiment on Everything
Make it a policy that employees should have the time, space, and freedom to experiment. Providing the opportunity to play on “less important” things again reduces the risk caused by mistakes – and allowing small “failures” is the fastest way to build an innovation mindset.
- Help Your People Be Better by Putting Them Together
Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Pair up or team up your employees to help them find comfort and accountability. Give them a set time once or twice a week to meet and share ideas and thoughts. They can do this during lunchtime, even. Putting their heads together will help them win.
- Set Small Goals and Short Projects
Small tasks are less time-consuming, take far less effort, and, again, don’t raise the stakes too high when they don’t work out. The mindset benefits of small wins can be huge.
- Provide Space for Relaxation and Learning During Work
Most people are constantly on their phones, at their desks, doing focussed tasks. mobile phones even at work to stay active. Inspiring employees to take time off to get up and walk around, whether they’re in the office or at home, and getting them to learn new things will help creativity fuel up.
Five Ways for Leaders to Enhance Creativity in The Workplace
As a leader, here are five specific ways you can maximize the innovation skills of your workforce.
- Provide Intellectual Challenges
Problem-solving is more engaging when it is more challenging. Create a sense of urgency and difficulty to trigger ingenuity and overcome boredom. Set tasks to be collaborative to make the process more fun and energizing and enhance the diversity of the solutions.
- Create an Environment for Inventiveness
Contradicting how things have been done in the past automatically triggers new ways of thinking and acting. Encourage your employees to challenge assumptions without worrying that they’ll be punished for questioning the status quo or being intimidated by the fear of recrimination. In fact, reward team members for creative thinking no matter how it turns out.
- Create Room for Lifelong Learning
Banking on current skills only leads to stagnation and repetition. Provide regular and ongoing opportunities for training and development to upskill constantly.
- Take Time with New Employees
Give new employees a sense of belonging by inviting them to share their ideas right away. Bringing new perspectives into the organization will cultivate a creative culture.
- Brainstorming
Encourage employees to brainstorm every day. Also invest in regular, planned brainstorming sessions every two weeks or month, with no concern for the results but only the process.
Bala [www.innovationminds.com]
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