Fostering Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace

The path to innovation is not an easy one. It takes careful planning and dedicated time, attention from company heads and usually a decent financial investment - but the destination is without equal. Innovation not only generates value for customers, but can also help organisations retain top talent, improve financial sustainability and keep abreast of the competition.

It may surprise you to know that the key to innovation lies with your own employees. Of course, organisations are, by definition, groups of people working toward a unified purpose. If your purpose is to foster innovation in your organisation, where better to start than with your people?

Encourage an innovative environment

Organisations looking to foster a culture of innovation need to create a climate that supports innovation. Think of how much harder it would be to do paperwork without a desk - the same goes for innovative work. The right climate will help to generate a culture of innovation over time.
 

There are a multiple ways to create a climate of innovation. One such approach is to provide employees with stimulating and challenging work that tickles a personal interest of theirs, such as giving team members the opportunity to do side projects that may be outside of their daily routine.

And don’t underestimate the power of atmosphere and carefully designed physical spaces. Setting up a dedicated space where creativity and out-of-the-box ideas can thrive and a specific time when employees can collaborate on innovative ideas can drastically alter the culture of your organisation.

Champion diversity

One of the most important activities involved in nurturing an innovative climate is encouraging diversity. We’re talking about more than targeting minority racial groups or women during the recruiting process. It means consciously supporting the growth and development of teams that are a mix of people from a variety of business units, educational backgrounds, personal value systems and geographical settings.

In a hot-pot environment like this, conflicts are to be expected - but they’re not always to be dreaded. Innovation is all about doing things better, faster, more efficiently - and how better to achieve this than by encouraging your employees to challenge each other? People who think differently create the kind of friction that generates new ideas.

It is a fine line, however. Personal beliefs are a sensitive topic to be approached with the critical eye that some business environments harbour. As employees work together on new ideas, inclusion becomes a crucial piece of the puzzle. For employees to feel comfortable generating and sharing new ideas, it is important to create an environment where they feel comfortable voicing opinions, openly commenting on others viewpoints, or disagreeing with ideas, while feeling secure in the knowledge that no one truly wants them to change of forget integral facets of their identity.

Break the routine

Studies have shown that routine is the kryptonite of creativity. Unfortunately, it’s all too common for people to get stuck in the rut of their daily habits at work and put aside creative thinking for another day. To keep your employees on their mental toes, encourage them to get away from their usual jobs by giving them something else exciting and different to focus on for a while.

Hackathons are a common occurrence in the tech industry, but the concept can be adapted easily enough by other organizations across various industries. The core of the idea is that your people are not allowed to work on activities related to their day job; only new thinking and new ideas.

Not only does this give your employees the perfect excuse to let their imaginations run wild and perhaps stumble across something truly golden in the process, it also serves as a nice reprieve from the humdrum, allowing your whole organisation to stretch their minds and fun muscles.