The biggest and best business success stories are often built from an ability to create. Successful businesses can innovate through new products, services, and systems. To spark new ideas, the process involves creatives in the top ranks and those working at entry-level. Innovation across the organization will set your business apart.
There are a lot of ways to reward or encourage creative thinking. Your employees are assets. Creative thinking by anyone in your organization could lead to more revenue and profits. Encourage and empower your team members to think creatively at every turn.
Here is how to promote creativity and innovation within an organization:
1. Human-Centered Design Strategies
Human centered design thinking is all about putting the user at the center of any problem. In business, the end-user decides whether a given product or initiative is a success or failure. When approaching a problem, be it in design or in the workplace, think about the user or customer. Use their perspective to inform the solution.
2 Be Available
A great manager of people has a strong presence in promoting creativity and innovation within an organization. They aren’t hiding in their office. If you’re serious about innovation in your organization, leave the office door open.
Have routine formal discussions with team members and give them the space to offer their feedback on what’s working and what isn’t. Make yourself open and available to hear the feedback coming your way.
3. Allow For Risks
Risk-taking is something that can pay off when you’re letting the right people take those calculated risks. New ways of doing things are not a bad thing. Take risks and fine-tune different suggestions and ideas to match your brand.
If you let your employees take more risks, they’ll naturally feel inclined to produce more ideas and take ownership of those very same risks.
4. Competition
Some people work great in competitive environments and then, others not so much. If you’re looking to achieve an innovation target, experiment with the idea of incentives and contests without going overboard with the competition. As valuable as it can be to have individuals working against one another, working as a team is also something you need.
5. Provide Time Off
It can seem counterintuitive when what you’re looking for is productive creativity. Still, no one should feel overworked and breaks a necessity for innovation. Provide breaks during the day. Provide days off when it’s needed. The stress of trying to be creative doesn’t help anyone. Creativity either happens, or it doesn’t. For it to happen, you need people rested and their brains ready to plug in.
6. The Right People For The Job
Identify talent. Some people are great at the details and others are big picture. Put employees where they are likely to develop their best ideas and provide them the tools to do so. Every person’s different. If someone’s in the wrong role, switch things up and see how it goes. Team managers are often surprised by the potential they tap into just by moving a few people into positions they excel at.
7. Get Team Members to Participate
Your organization’s workers should feel connected to your brand. Ask for their input on certain decisions. Involve them in crafting certain strategies. There are probably many processes where more participation could benefit the company as a whole. Build a connection between the organization and team members to spur more participation in innovative thinking.
8. Collaborate And Make Work Fun
If you can make work fun and feel like family, it’ll be a breeze coming up with ideas, testing, prototyping, and being creative both on an individual front and as a team. Invest the time to connect with people. Pair employees. Rotate pairs. Have team projects. Let people get to know one another and invest in crafting a team-first atmosphere as opposed to cutthroat one-on-one competition for who can come up with the best idea.
