Tips and Examples on Encouraging Innovation - Indeed

Hello, and welcome to my last summary about the topic of encouraging innovation. We cannot talk about a business related topic without seeing Indeed's thoughts on it. 

Indeed is, according to its website, the #1 job site in the world with over 350 million visitors every month (About (indeed.com)). The organization also has a lot of articles about anything job- or career-related, and this is one of them. The examples included in the article helped me visualize innovation a bit more, and I hope it is the same for you.

The article provides tips on encouraging workplace innovation and offers examples of innovation in different workplace scenarios. Innovation is important in the workplace, it challenges employees to think differently, promotes growth, and sets companies apart from their competitors. There are a lot of benefits of an innovative company, such as attracting new hires, enhancing internal efficiency, improving products, boosting employee engagement and collaboration, and maximizing productivity.

Working in a different place or changing the meeting style might stimulate new ideas, foster motivation, and serve as inspiration. When new ideas come then, being positive about every suggestion and respecting each individual, advocating for them will give them motivation to keep going. Innovation is not only a good idea that some employee had but it has the power to change an organization completely. Empower employees to be that change, by giving them opportunities aligned to their strengths and weaknesses.

Small changes lead to larger ones, whether they may be bad or good. That means that changing old, (maybe) inefficient habits, not only for employees but for upper management as well, may be the inspiration to do something different. A specific example noted in the article was to challenge a team to work on something without using their normal resources (the internet) to see how far individuals may get.

Stay up to date with industry needs and trends and try to be the change you want to see in others. That gives the company a competitive advantage and meanwhile brings morale up. Creative employees are the greatest asset a company can have.

The article briefly outlines a guide for facilitating and encouraging innovation at work, which includes identifying a problem, then setting goals and criteria, involving employees in every step of the process. To get to the goal brainstorm for ideas, research them, follow up and select the best solution, and finish by developing a definite plan for implementation.

In conclusion, let’s look at two examples of workplace innovation:

When faced with an organization-wide problem in an accounting firm, bring employees from various departments, such as accountants, customer service, and IT, together for a brainstorming session outside of their usual surroundings, and come up with a solution to the problem of hour tracking. This session could bring the organization together to adopt a new software to streamline billable hours tracking.

An organization realizes a product/service they sell is not being used enough because of a confusing name. Since all employees are remote, a video conference is called with the leader treating the employees to a food delivery gift card for session snacks. Then, when everything is set up and a brief presentation about the service, teams of different departments within the company are formed to brainstorm. As result of the brainstorming session, the company chooses a new name for their email marketing tool: Inbox Sorting Assistant. By getting different people together to work on a project, however small it may seem, you can bring change and innovation into an organization.

This is the link to the article on the Indeed website:

How To Encourage Innovation in the Workplace (With Examples and Tips) | Indeed.com

By illustrating with real-life examples, innovation becomes clearer for me. The word is in some cases overused. Almost anything could be labelled innovation, but real innovation arises from a need and a creative individual that has the desire and passion for change. I hope and wish that all organizations, whether big or small, make innovation a key part of their existence; it will ensure that they will continue to exist further. 

After talking so much about innovation, I hope that we can all implement these ideas and tips as employees or leaders in any organization.