3 fundamentals to help you maximize innovation!

Is your organization as ready for innovation as you’d like it to be?

Innovative organizations embrace cultures that reward original and pioneering thought. Within innovative organizations, change is welcome and responsive work structures are in place to manage continuous transformation.

While there are many factors that contribute to innovation, corporate climate is a crucial consideration that often is either overlooked altogether or not given the attention it deserves. Below are three fundamental prerequisites to a healthy innovative culture. Read on to assess how your organization stacks up:

Freedom

Innovation requires the freedom and flexibility to ‘think outside the box’ as well as seek and share knowledge.

• Can your people exercise discretion in their day-to-day schedule and in the determination of how their tasks are completed?
• How much freedom do they have in defining their own work?
• Do associates feel free take initiative?

Engagement

Innovation requires attention and commitment to a worthy endeavor.

• Do your people know and understand the organization’s vision and long-term goals?
• Are they appropriately challenged?
• Are they excited about what they do and motivated to contribute to a dynamic operation?

Diversity of Perspectives

Innovation requires a fresh approach.

• Are your people willing to suggest ideas for new products or processes?
• Does your organization welcome new ideas and genuinely explore them?
• Is failure tolerated?

Take an Innovation Challenge!

One way to crush the dimensions above and optimize business results is to run an innovation challenge. Innovation Challenges are an engaging way to gather authentic and wide-ranging insights into real business issues.

You start by soliciting ideas from whomever you deem appropriate – employees, customers, supply chain partners, etc. Next, as the ideas roll in, crowdsourcing feedback often yields surprising and valuable results; results that would be unattainable by other means. Finally, determining how to rank and select (and when to implement) the most promising of ideas delivered in your innovation challenge is completely up to you. While the core elements remain the same, the details can be as unique as you and your organization. Here’s to your success – happy innovating!

Have you run or participated in an innovation challenge? If so, please drop a comment below (or email us at info@innovative-e.com) and share your what has worked for you! Do you have other keys to success to share?