By: Christina Nguyen
Innovation can be a daunting concept. After all, it usually entails creativity and risk, which not every business owner finds easy to take on. While innovation is generally associated with founders and business leaders, any team member can contribute if the proper environment is set in place.
Innovation is typically a marker of a company being relatively mature ‒ 81% of survey respondents at mature companies reported their company as innovative compared to only 10% at developing companies. Reasons why a company might push its boundaries can range from wanting to develop new products to enhance its customer experience. Another common theme is solving a problem, either within their own company or to address the problems that their customers may face.
It’s easy to understand why an individual, business leader or a company might be innovation-averse ‒ it’s risky, and risk can instill fear. Although a single individual can come up with an innovative idea anytime, it’s often a team effort that can inspire your business.
Take a look at four simple tips that can help promote a culture of innovation -
Embrace, rather than fear, new challenges and out-of-the-box thinking.
Pushing your creative buttons can squeeze out trepidation long before ideas. How much fear arises isn’t just influenced by the uncertainty of possible failure, but also the atmosphere the business creates. The more employees are harshly reprimanded and overall punished for their failures, the more fearful they’ll be of embarking on an endeavor that may fail.
The opposite of this is rewarding creative, out-of-the box behavior and thinking. You don’t have to set up formal prizes, even just positive words of affirmation can make a difference. For example, showing an HR team member that you’re happy to see their initiative to set up a new system for employee check-in, even if it’s something you don’t want to implement.
Think back to how you treat employees that have already tried to innovate? How did you react to the failures? Did you spend more time lamenting their failure or celebrating that they had courageously tried in the first place?
It may sound uncomfortable facing failure, especially since it isn’t even your own. Part of developing the mental fortitude for innovation means being financially and mentally prepared for a team member’s effort to not come to fruition. But, no matter how brilliant you think someone’s idea is, it can still be a setback when you’re blindsided by its failure.
Foster socialization within your organization.
When you are seeking to create change, be sure to meet with any other teams within your organization. Each company department is intertwined with one another, with the results of one influencing the work of the others. For example, a customer service mishap resulting in a viral tweet might need the clever heroism of the marketing team to save the day.
The more your employees have an understanding of how their actions impact other teams, the more they might be inspired to improve processes to make things easier. For example, you can foster company-wide socialization by holding company mixers or even having people from one department shadow someone in another department for a few days.
Perhaps seeing the customer service team struggle with an overflow of frantic calls might inspire the user experience (UX) designers to come up with a more streamlined process on the website to route customer service inquiries to the right representatives or improve the design of the FAQs so customers can better find their solutions without having to reach out.
Lead with inspiration
As a business leader, it’s built into your role to be innovative. But there’s a difference between you appointing yourself as the innovator versus being the leader of company-wide innovation. You never know which individual team member or team will come up with a bright new idea that’ll make waves across that team, the whole company, or even your whole industry.
Show your team that your position doesn’t pigeonhole you as the company’s sole innovator. Your creativity isn’t meant to separate you, but it can help to inspire everyone else. You can show this by sharing your ideas during meetings or over messaging channels and asking for feedback. Again, don’t forget point #1 ‒ understand that not everyone will succeed, not even you, so be kind to yourself and others in the moments where not everything goes as planned.
What are some ways your company has encouraged a thriving culture of innovation? What are your tips for arriving at new, innovative ideas? Feel free to let us know in the comments below!
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About Stingray Advisory Group LLC: Stingray Advisory Group LLC is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is a proud member of Local First and the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. We help businesses grow. By creating customized solutions, we empower businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools to further their development.
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