MURAccording to a study from Accenture, 90% of executives believe that innovation is the key to long-term success and flourishing of any business strategy.
We know that innovation can only take place in the right environment, which can be traced back to leadership. It will prove to be greatly beneficial for the leaders to promote an effective innovation pipeline and consistently motivate the employees to generate fresh and out-of-the-box ideas to maximise the creative aspect of the business.
While some companies are greatly successful with their innovation attempts, reports also claim that 70% of these change efforts fail. So, what can you do, as a leader, to promote innovation as a part of your company? Keep reading to find out:
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Open communication works wonders:
A workspace where each employee feels that their voice is being recognised and appreciated is the key to getting an innovative staff. Holding company-wide sessions and brainstorming sessions will prove to be advantageous for achieving an open communication between the employees and management. Encouraging innovation will keep your employees motivated to share their best ideas. It is only when people start to feel free to raise ideas, execute them, and take proper ownership of them that true innovation happens. If they feel the need to ask permission at every step, their level of interest will start to diminish.
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Everyone takes ownership:
Want innovative ideas to keep flowing? Make every single employee responsible for innovation – so much so that it gets rooted in the company’s profile. This aspect can be embedded in the hiring process when evaluating new employees and seeking those individuals who demonstrate a passion for innovative and fresh ideas.
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Motivate your team to be curious:
It’s as simple as this – the more information your team members have about the client market, the more data they can leverage to enhance innovation. Being curious and trying to learn more about your consumers is where innovation initiates. Take, for example, Samsung, which has design centres all around the world to enable them to better understand the local people, their culture, and lifestyles. This helps them ensure that their product meets the requirements of the locals in different markets. Another example is of Airbnb, where the company employees would travel and stay with their customers and gain valuable insight into their experiences.
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Tweaks get results:
Step away from the illusion that every new idea is capable of being executed perfectly and results in wild successes. More often than not, the first version of any idea will be flawed. Most great ideas are perfected and reimagined. As they say, successful innovators are not found but are developed, just like ideas.
Innovation is definitely not a one-person game; it requires a team to work consistently and innovatively while being confident enough to share whatever sparks in their minds. To achieve this revolution of game-changing ideas, the company needs to build a culture where every employee and business decision revolves around this concept.
