Employees who sit at their desks all day ticking off tasks and team meetings that are filled with strategy and logistics with no opportunity for or offering of creativity – does this sound like your organization? If so, then it sounds like your workplace may be due for an innovation boost.

Whether your organization is able to compete and survive in the market is directly linked to your ability to innovate. But for innovation to be a successful venture, it needs to be supported by everyone, at all levels of your organization. Organizations that encourage a focus on innovation in the workplace reap the benefits in many forms, such as increased profits, competitive advantage, market adaptability, and employee satisfaction and retention.

Creating a culture of innovation is something that may have been on your mind for some time, but finding a way to implement this into your organization and make it a part of your business strategy can be a challenge – many business leaders will agree. It takes innovation in itself, to implement an innovative culture. It will take some strategizing and testing to find the best ways to encourage innovation in your organization, but here are some tips to get you started:

1. Be open to new ideas: You can’t expect your employees to feel encouraged to innovate if they aren’t clear on how their ideas will benefit the organization or even how to approach you about it. Make sure that you clearly lay out the goals of your organization, and how innovation plays a role in that, and promote an open-door policy in the office to let your employees know you are open to hearing their new ideas. It is important to have a process in place for employees to bring forward their new ideas. They will feel more encouraged to suggest or recommend ideas if they are sure they are being heard and the ideas are considered appropriately. 
   
   
2. Accommodate the time and space to innovate: Allocate some time every day or every week for your employees to take a break from their routine and think up, collaborate on, or share new ideas. This could take the form of weekly brainstorming sessions, suggestion boxes around the office, or even a dedicated space in the office for people to go to and share their ideas.
   
   
3. Diversify your hires to gain different perspectives: Having a roster of employees that have a different set of ideas and different approaches to problem-solving will in itself foster innovation. You want people who think differently than you do, who can offer up ideas that you may not have thought of to help grow and expand your organization.
   
   
4. Encourage teamwork and collaboration: Look for ways to break down barriers between different departments in your organization to encourage different teams with different perspectives to collaborate. Having your more innovative teams converse with your less innovative teams will promote the spread and sharing of new ideas across the whole organization.
   
   
5. Change up your meeting structure: Do you find that you are often losing the focus of your team in meetings? Obviously meetings are important in the workplace to discuss strategy and results, but they are also a great opportunity to get your employees thinking outside the box. Mix things up a little in your meetings by allocating some time for your team to share new ideas and brainstorm solutions.
   
   
6. Implement new ideas in a timely manner: When a new idea is presented, make sure that you implement this as efficiently as possible. The last thing you want is for employees to lose confidence with a lengthy approval and implementation process. When employees are able to see how their ideas have contributed to the organization, this will help them feel motivated to continue to share ideas, work towards the success of the idea, and encourage other employees to do the same. If an idea can’t be implemented right away, or at all, make sure to keep a line of communication open with your employees to be transparent and avoid discouragement.
   
   
7. Reward innovation: Use rewards to encourage employees to share their ideas, even if you don’t implement all of them. These rewards could be anything you believe would energize your team to think innovatively, and will ignite a bit of friendly competition that will ultimately inspire higher innovation. 

We’ve discussed how innovation in the workplace is essential to be able to compete and survive in the market, but what specific benefits does adopting an innovation culture have for your organization?

• Promotes creativity among your team to generate new ideas that will help to upgrade and expand the offerings and operations of the organization.
• Increases the competitiveness of your organization by helping to improve the quality of your offerings and the efficiency of your workplace.
• Improves the retention of staff by creating a culture that promotes teamwork, problem-solving, creativity, and transparency.
• Helps you to adopt a more proactive approach to business so that you are able to keep up with the changes in your industry.
• New ideas have the opportunity to help you branch out into new markets and offer new and improved products to your existing consumer base.

Inspiring an innovative culture in your organization will ensure that your whole team is working towards improving business practices, efficiency, and performance. The only way to move forward and grow your organization is to innovate and inspire your team to do the same. If you haven’t adopted an innovative culture yet, now is the time to get working on it.