EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Ninety-five percent of business leaders report that innovation is a core component of running a successful enterprise. Businesses that fail to innovate risk losing market share, losing talent, and losing profit.
To create a culture of innovation, there are a few evidence-based approaches that organizations cannot afford to forgo. Chief among these are feelings of equality, diversity, and the bandwidth and resources for employees to pursue learning opportunities.
Once those foundational pieces are established:
- Learn to see innovation as a core competency for employees. Creativity and innovation can be taught. Ensure that this is done within management trainings and other types of in-house seminars. According to the Harvard Business Review, creative output hinges on key management approaches.
- Empower employees to innovate. Encourage people to offer suggestions for problems, especially as they relate to the product, production process or business model. As a leader, you cannot lead alone, and need the support of your team. Listen to, mentor and learn from your talented pool of employees. Click To Tweet
- Carve out dedicated time. Innovation can’t occur in the margins, between meetings or other activities. While the hesitation to offer employees hours of ‘free time’ is not undue, employees’ ideas could really pay off in the long run. Turn it into a competition, and offer prizes to contributors with top ideas. This way, you’ll ensure, as best as possible, that no one ‘wastes’ any time.
- Ask your employees to identify tools that could either foster additional innovation, or that could give your company an edge.
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