We love innovation. Being able to innovate and having the desire to execute new ideas allows us to constantly improve our product and the way we do business.
The most successful companies are those who put innovation close to their hearts. They throw fear out of the window, take risks and push boundaries. Ideas are the strongest currency and the best ones are taken forward to better the product and the business.
However, innovation doesn’t come with a rulebook. There’s not a how-to guide or a ten-step plan to be more innovative. Innovation goes deeper than that. It’s a mindset, a way of being and, for it to deliver results, it has to become an intrinsic part of an organisation’s culture.
The best business cultures are the ones that create an environment where growth and development are encouraged. For innovation to be sustained, the environment in which it grows has to be fit for purpose. Without this, ideas always stay as seeds and can never bloom or blossom.
While there isn’t a rulebook, there are ways to create the best environment for ideas to thrive…
1. Ask yourself ‘What if…’
It’s easy to get stuck in the status quo, of doing things in one particular way because that’s they way they’ve always been done. But what if they were done differently? What would happen then?
Last week we looked at the need for Starbucks to change their scheduling model so it worked for both the business and the employees. To get to this point the question ‘What if employees could create their own schedules?’ needed to be asked. Because some asked the ‘What if’ a different solution was created doing something better, different and new to what had been done before.
Always ask questions; of yourself, of your team and of your peers. Finding new answers and new solutions is always a joy.
2. Listen to ideas
Great ideas can come from anywhere. Whether it’s the CEO or the new intern, you never know where the next great idea is hiding. Create a platform and an opportunity for ideas to be heard. This could be anything from old fashioned suggestion boxes to an online platform where all employees can submit their ideas.
PricewaterhouseCoopers introduced a platform like this and saw 60% of their 32,000 employees submit, vote or comment on an idea with some of the ideas going on to save the company hundreds of thousands of dollars.
3. Be brave
Being brave with ideas comes when we lose the fear of failure. The fear of failure often leads to inaction when the risk is perceived as being too great. No one wants to fail, particularly in a public setting like at work, but we all do at some stage. And it’s ok to fail, providing we learn from it, when we can look at it objectively and say: ‘This is what we did, this is what happened and this is what we learnt.’ Learn from mistakes but be brave enough to make them in the first place.
Innovation is something we prize at Quinyx and something we can help bring to your company. Talk to us today to find out how.
