Five Simple Ways to Jumpstart An Innovative Culture

Oct 4, 2011 by Jessica Ray
 
Autonomy is essential to fostering a creative environment.  So while it may seem counterintuitive, the best way to truly cultivate innovation is to give your employees direction and goals. My last post highlighted the four basics for you to consider when establishing an innovative culture. In this post, I’ve identified 5 simple things that you can do to jumpstart creativity!

#1.  Identify at least 3 issues, challenges or opportunities you want to address now.  These could be related to your employees, product, customers or even your office building. Regardless of the topic, the goals identified should be related to your organization’s goals and mission. Maybe they’re more general (“Establish our company as the leader in XYZ”) or maybe more specific (“Increase participation at our Q4 meeting”). Let your employees know that you want them to solve these problems and support them in creative problem solving techniques. Don’t lose sight of the idea that you’re establishing innovation to improve your organization, and while it can also be a lot of fun, your employees will appreciate the focus too.

#2.  Schedule a weekly brainstorming meeting. Ask your employees from different departments to lead each week. Review the issues and goals you’ve identified and encourage the contributions of new ones. Write them down on a whiteboard and support free discussion. It’s important in these sessions to let employees know that anything goes. While side conversations can be distracting, let them happen if they seem productive and encourage employees to share their insights from those discussions afterward. If possible, invite your entire organization. If not possible, schedule weekly team brainstorming sessions and solicit participation and attendance from other teams in the company.

#3. Create a monthly forum for sharing and recognition. Encourage your employees to showcase their ideas and suggestions. By recognizing your employees and their ideas, successes and failures, you’ll promote your culture and motivate employees to continue to create.

#4.  Design a rewards program that inspires continued thought leadership. While monetary incentives can be a great motivator for employees to hit numeric goals, the best motivator of genuine creativity and innovation is additional freedom to create, or further opportunities for professional development. When an employee suggests a new way to communicate across teams, ask them to own the initiative. If an employee from the sales team brainstorms an idea with one of your developers, offer the opportunity to enroll in a basic programming class.

#5. Designate a creative space. Employees who are comfortable with their surroundings are typically more engaged. In an innovative culture, it is important for your employees to feel like they have a space where they are not only comfortable to be themselves but are also surrounded by an environment that embraces creativity. Some companies have “living rooms” instead of conferences rooms; others get creative with unique wall colors, like lime green or bright yellow. Drastic changes like these are not always necessary or financially possible.  Simple changes like playing music in a conference room or in the lunch room everyday at 3 p.m., for example, can easily encourage employees as well.
Do you have an innovative culture?   What are some of the ways you’ve found success and kept the creativity alive?
Five Simple Ways to Jumpstart An Innovative Culture | OpenView Blog