What if you could increase productivity, accelerate revenue, and reduce employee turnover in your company by better leveraging hidden resources that you already have?

One often overlooked resource in any company is the power of innovation.

When you know how to tap into your team members’ ability to create and offer up new ideas, you are leveraging unlimited and often untapped resources within your organization and the power of innovation to accelerate your growth and revenue.

These two essential items help maximize innovation in any organization.

• Realizing that good ideas can come from anywhere and
• Being able to hear those ideas

Both of those things can be cultivated in your organization’s culture - or stifled.

The ideal organizational culture also improves collaboration, cohesion, quality, and productivity.

Today I’m giving you immediately actionable techniques that you can implement easily.

People like to be heard. We’re social animals, and part of socializing is dialogue.

Knowing how to create healthy and productive dialogue in your company culture is essential for increasing innovation.

You might miss some of the best ideas without creating room for that dialogue.

Here are some of the things that can dampen innovation in your company:

• A culture where people are afraid to share thoughts because they’re worried about appearing rude or disrespectful
• An environment where people don’t contribute for fear of being ridiculed, or ignored
• A ‘We don’t do things that way here...’ mentality that shuts down ideas to improve or growYour leadership is how you create an organizational culture that encourages new ideas and discourages negative responses to new ideas. This happens in ways that you may not even know. Facial expressions, sighs, where you look, interruptions, and body language communicate at an emotional level. Keep that in mind when someone is offering an idea or suggestion that they think will help you or your organization reach its objectives.

  Your stated policies as well as your stated organizational goals are an integral part of your organizational culture – they set the boundaries and focus your employees’ thought process. These optimized organizational culture produces highly effective brainstorming sessions.

  You’ve called a brainstorming meeting… announced it a few days ago to give everyone a chance to think about the problem. Everyone knows what you want to accomplish and why it is important.

  How to grow an innovation-oriented culture in your company

  Next time you call a brainstorming meeting … be sure that a few days beforehand you’ve announced the topic, challenges, goals, and outcomes you want. That gives everyone enough time to prepare.

  Before the meeting, set innovation supporting ground rules such as:

  • No negative comments
  • Everyone can ask questions. Questions are as close to negative as allowed. If someone suggests a seemingly unworkable idea, asking questions that allows the speaker to find their shortcomings, if they exist. And it sustains the collegial atmosphere. More importantly, it avoids putting them on the defense or embarrassing them.
  • Find the Golden Nugget. Poor ideas often have something of value in them. Encourage each member to find that Golden Nugget if they can.
  • Take Responsibility. Everyone knows that you, the boss, will decide on the course your company will take. If the suggestion you accept fails, you’ve made it clear that it’s no one else’s fault but your own, because you accepted the suggestion.

  Finally, on last innovation-encouraging power tool

  Call on the most shy, timid member present first, to keep them from being intimidated by more senior and forceful employees. Work your way up from the most timid to the most forceful.

  This approach has two clear benefits:

  • You’ll get as many ideas as possible.
  • And, knowing that everyone will be called, everyone will be ready.

  This approach has taken advantage of human nature – our natural need to express ourselves, be heard, and appreciated for our ideas. It also allows people to safely offer their ideas – ideas that you may have never thought of or heard in any other venue. This paves the way for increased innovation in your organization.

  Look for other ways of increasing your company’s competitiveness, profitability, and growth in future articles.

  Want more ways to increase your company’s competitiveness, profitability, and growth? Send me a message!

  Find value from this article? Share 1 takeaway in the comments below to let me know!