Innovation drives business at every level, even in those industries where change is much slower than others. It keeps organizations and employees fresh, creates new and engaging challenges and when done thoughtfully, helps keep customer interest high. You can create a more innovative culture within your own organization with the tips below.
Open Communication
Innovation thrives when people feel like they can share their ideas and their critiques at every level. Many job seekers who are dreaming of a big career change site the desire for innovation as a top reason for leaving their former companies. This means that leadership within your organization must create an atmosphere of trust. People need to feel comfortable speaking up about their thoughts and at pointing out what might be wrong with the approach of their superiors. You may need to do some workshops on how to offer and respond to constructive feedback.
Give Support
Support is another necessary element for innovation to thrive. You’ll know this if you’ve ever worked for an organization where the staff has essentially given up because they know that the company doesn’t have their back. If there’s something they need, even if it will help them do their job better, the business would rather stick with the status quo than shake things up. Your mission is to be the opposite of this, and often this will involve listening to employees and department heads to figure out what they need. Your fleet manager may come to you in need of a compliance solution and a platform that helps them track all kinds of data. Rather than send them back to make do with the same old processes, you might work in collaboration with them to choose software that will allow them to do tachograph analysis, helping measure how drivers are performing via live tacho status and other features, such as remote downloads.
Empower Employees
Both of the above suggestions are reasons to feel optimistic about the economy and innovation as they relate to each other, as well as reasons being a part of a larger practice that involves empowering employees is crucial. This starts with hiring people who are self-starters and whose vision matches your own. Next, you need to avoid micromanaging them. In addition, you can help them development at your organization, providing opportunities for additional training and continuing learning. All of this helps to give them a sense of ownership, and when an employee feels invested in the organization where they work, innovation is more likely to flourish.
Balance Risk and Failure
It’s risky and ultimately disastrous if you fail to innovate, but innovation can be risky as well. It may seem much safer to sit back and wait for others to innovate and then follow suit, but you’ll never be any further ahead than the middle of the pack with this approach. You need to create a culture in which both risk and failure are understood as part of the package. This doesn’t mean that you encourage employees to be cavalier with the company’s resources, but it will be much more difficult to get leaps of innovation if they are terrified about the consequences. During collaborative sessions, if modern advertising tips are discussed, actually consider them, instead of sticking to the same old strategy. This shows your employees you value their suggestions and that you have the ability to be agile when it counts. You can encourage employees and teams to mine failures for what can be learned from them and treat them as opportunities to try again with more knowledge.
