How to Encourage Innovative Thinking

Nothing new comes from doing nothing new. Innovation pushes boundaries, offers new solutions, solves problems, and shakes things up. The problem is, though, that most companies don't encourage it. Or, they have a 'faux' encouragement where they ask for ideas but then make fun of or trash the idea.

Encouraging workplace innovation gives your company an edge because your employees know the company and the audience better than anyone else—and if they see an opportunity, it is important for them to seize it.

Why should your company encourage innovation?

Without innovation, your company will stagnate, which should be reason enough. It won't just be stagnant in terms of what your company offers; your employees will also be stagnant. If nothing new is added, they will become bored and woefully under-trained.

Without innovation, your company's ability to adapt quickly will be significantly slower than that of your competitors. Using the pandemic as an example, the businesses that were quick to change things up and adjust thrived—those that didn't aren't in business today. Innovation allows your company to make quick changes when it really matters.

A competitive edge comes from taking what you do and doing it better - year on year, product on product.

So how can you increase the innovation in your company?

Leadership

If your leaders and management are not into innovation, it becomes standard practice for your employees not to care about it either. True innovation and being open to new things come from the leadership. This also means that, as a leader, you need to assess the readiness for more innovation. This assessment is often better done by outsiders because they will have a fresh perspective.

Top-down innovation is the only way to make a significant impact.

Linear approach

We often think of a business as a handful of people at the top and multiple layers of people below. That is the typical hierarchical approach that can work well, but when you want open communication, transparency, and innovation, it works better if people feel equal.

Some of the best innovation comes from the idea that there are no silos, and communication between all levels of the team and all business areas can communicate. Love him or hate him, Elon Musk promotes a flat management structure, which means interns and seniors alike will be working across multiple departments.

Often, the idea that a traditional hierarchy is needed is outdated and comes from a place of ego. Once the ego is gone and the focus is on the business's vision, things change.

Motivation

There are going to be plenty of people already on your teams who are brimming with ideas - and all they are missing is the motivation to present them. These types of workers are entrepreneurial - and you're lucky to have them already working for you.

But if no one springs to mind, the chances are they aren't motivated enough yet. Start talking to your team about what makes them tick and what gets them excited about their work.

Thinking Time

Also known as side project time, some companies are at the forefront of their industry and actively encourage people to take time every day to think stuff up. Google stated that it applies 20% of the time to their employees, which means that they can work on a side project one day a week. That is how we now have products like Google News, Gmail, and AdSense.

3M has a 15% Culture, which means its employees can set aside time during the work week to work on innovation.

In both cases, employees are encouraged to challenge themselves, change processes, and build. To quote William McKnight, 3M president and chairman for 37 years: hire good people and leave them alone; management is destructive and critical and kills initiative.

Reward Failure

There are two ways to look at failure—one is that something didn't work, and the other is to say try again. Failure is unavoidable when it comes to innovation, and it should be welcomed because, for every failure, you are one step closer to success.

Take a leaf out of the books from the many failures of huge companies like Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Netflix.

Don't try, don't know - but make sure that your employees are willing to try and fail without consequences.

Co-creation

While all the departments of your business might be separate, what they could achieve together is often more extensive than the sum of the parts. That is to say, create learning and lunch times where different departments can teach other departments things. Create a problem and use mixed-department teams to solve it.

You can take your co-creation one step further and create an innovation hub. People can use it to post ideas or problems, and other people can suggest solutions or ways to make them work.

Alternatively, you can look at outside innovation hubs that are equipped for teams and groups and have the right facilitators to bring out the best in your employees.

Wellbeing

Overworked and underpaid employees aren't going to give you their best, and they certainly aren't going to be happy being asked for innovation. Employees who are taken care of are going to be more creative naturally - happy people have more prominent and more exciting ideas. In a culture that belittles and laughs about people's ideas, you are creating an unsafe environment - and you will get nothing in terms of innovation. Further - reward success too.

If you want innovation and excitement, then you need to create the right environment to encourage it. It starts with leadership and sometimes ends with long pizza-fueled thinking sessions.

Final Thoughts

• Innovation is essential for companies to stay competitive and avoid stagnation. It offers new solutions, solves problems, and keeps employees engaged and motivated.
• Encouraging workplace innovation provides a competitive edge. Employees often have a deep understanding of the company and its audience, enabling them to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Increasing innovation within a company involves several key factors, including leadership support, adopting a more equal and open communication structure, motivating employees to share their ideas, and providing time for creative thinking.
• Embracing failure as a natural part of the innovation process, fostering co-creation between different departments, prioritizing employee wellbeing, and rewarding failure and success are crucial steps in cultivating a culture of innovation.