Nine ways to encourage innovation
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Innovation is an important business priority – but if you want to fuel it you need to be clear. Are you just trying to get your team to manage change that’s already happening, or do you want to encourage people to take risks and think of new ideas?
If it’s the latter, here are nine ideas you can try:
- Create an environment where ideas are explored and nurtured. Think about the last three ideas your team brought to you – where are they now? If your team aren’t bringing you many new ideas, it may be because of your instant response. If you know yourself to be analytical, for example – do you grab the idea and start to critique the possible problems? Or do you make the act of bringing an idea to you a pleasant and enjoyable one?
- Devote time to ideas. If you have something that you need ideas for, think about holding a huddle (a small brainstorming session with some of your team members) or book a specific slot on the agenda at your next team meeting. And be sure to warn them in advance that you’re going to need their help and what the opportunity or problem is! This will really help the introverts on your team to contribute at their best – they need quiet thinking time.
- New ideas can look like complaining. Learn to separate complaints from the nugget of truth – what is the person pointing out as a problem? Does this need an innovative solution? Identifying the problem is the first step on the route to innovation.
- Allow people to contribute ideas anonymously. Some people will always worry about being laughed at for their ideas – suggestion boxes may not be cool, but there’s a reason organisations use them. Can you suggest that everyone spends 10 minutes thinking and puts an idea in the box before the meeting?
- Hire people who like creativity and are willing to push new ideas. As with everything, some people are more disposed to think creatively and challenge the status quo than others. Hire them into your team – but don’t forget that’s why you hired them if they start to frustrate you with too many innovations! Also pay attention to the innovators inside and outside your team. Sometimes you can ‘hire’ people to throw ideas around with regard to your problem by offering to buy them a coffee or treat them to lunch – innovators love to be asked for ideas!
- Realise that not everyone innovates in the same way. Some people look at a blank page and fill it – others need the first page to be written so they can fill up the rest of the book.
- Praise innovation and risk taking. When someone comes up with something new praise them for it and tell others about it. People do what gets rewarded, so if you can build a habit of celebrating innovation you’ll build a habit of innovation across your team. Even ideas that don’t work can be celebrated for trying something new! Hewlett Packard used to fire a cannon as a celebration for good ideas and projects that were brave attempts but didn’t succeed, and were put to rest. This encourages people to risk something new.
- Pan for gold. Your team will offer you a lot of ideas that you’ll need to sift to get to the real nuggets. Don’t worry about the volume of ideas and the percentage of “bad” suggestions – sorting through them is how you find the gold.
- Innovation isn’t always just about “big change”. Remember that lots of small changes can add up to big improvements! Find a way of grouping the innovations under themes so that people can grasp the overall shift being made.
Consider the last three ideas your team brought to you. Reflect on how you handle innovation from your team. How many ideas do you get, what happens to them – and why? Which of the 9 ideas will you try this week?