Innovation is the word of the moment for businesses. However, many still find it difficult to implement new ideas, especially when they come from their employees. There is no way to measure the number of development opportunities missed by organizations because they are unable to hear or carry on the ideas of those who live the company’s daily routine.

Due to this recurring problem, this post highlights 3 strategy insights presented by Fast Company, a technology and innovation magazine, to help you in the creation of a work environment that can stimulate and reward creative ideas from your employees.

Keep on reading!

 

Creativity: is it a problem or solution?

Have you ever wondered how many great ideas are overlooked within a company? But why?

The truth is that many companies still face the opinions of their employees as a problem in their processes. And when that happens, one thing is certain: in such environments, innovation isn’t probably a priority.

Companies that are experiencing digitization and Industry 4.0 should see these ideas as opportunities for development, learning, and optimization. And there is another important factor: listening to employees and discussing opinions makes them feel part of the business.

Besides low receptiveness, many businesses don’t have also a proper system to get proposals from their professionals. The lack of a formal workflow to evaluate employees’ ideas is another obstacle to innovation development.

See below what some companies are doing to foster creativity in their work environments:

 

1 – Implementing a clear and intuitive system

It’s vital to ensure that all employees can submit their ideas to be evaluated. There can be several submission ways, such as creating a suggestion box, a communication channel, discussion forums, and workshops to build projects.

Regardless the chosen format, the main goal is to make the system intuitive and accessible, so all employees are comfortable sharing their ideas.

 

2 – Bypassing the company’s bureaucracy

You can also encourage creative ideas by making the evaluation process more transparent, funny and democratic.

Rite-Solutions (an American IT company), for example, developed a smart way to generate new ideas and circumvent decision-making bureaucracy. They created a stock market where the shares are employees’ ideas. All professionals receive a given amount in digital currency, in order to invest in the coolest ideas from their colleagues.

This system has the purpose of fostering and encouraging even further the submission of ideas by those professionals.

 

3 – Fixing any issues

How many companies start marketing a flawed product to the market and improve it over time? When we innovate, we are subject to a ‘hit or miss’ process.

Forward-thinking organizations accept the risks and the possibility of failure. They adopt agile methodologies  to drive innovation with high-performing teams, which meet demands fast and to perfection. This requires a team with multiple profiles and high knowledge about processes.

Every failure that arises brings also an opportunity to learn and improve. This doesn’t mean that we should test any idea, but when a given idea is actually tested, there is a possibility of failure, and these failures will be certainly minimized along the way.

 

What about you? Do you have any other tips that aren’t addressed in this post? Share them with us in the comments!

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