One of the developers on my team is in the midst of mentoring a new employee. The other day he took me aside and asked, “How does one foster innovation?”
I was flattered that he asked me, as I don’t feel I’m an authority on the topic… however I am sure our company has what I’d call a “culture of innovation”. I wanted to give him an answer to the best of my ability, so I reflected on my experiences, and have shared my thoughts below.
Here are the top 4 ways that come to mind:
1.Build Trust
First and foremost, you must trust your team, and they must trust you. Provide them a space in which to solve a problem, and allow them to be creative in arriving at a solution. If you’ve already decided the path you want taken to arrive at the solution, present it that way.
You should set boundaries in accordance with their level of experience and degree of trust they have earned. As the team member gains experience, expand the boundaries within which they can create.
2.Give Ownership
When your team feels ownership of a problem, they are more likely to come up with an innovative solution.
If something isn’t working well, ask yourself who is in the best position to suggest improvements? Let the folks who are closest to the problem know it is up to them to make sure our processes run smoothly. If something isn’t quite right, what should we do to fix it ?
This relates to the Build Trust topic. As a result of being close to the matter at hand, trust that your people have access to some insights that you don’t have, and therefore are able to contribute to a great solution.
3.Be Introspective
Take a moment to look back at an outcome and see if it presents an opportunity to innovate.
Many of the innovations in our company arise from a mistake that we made, or an area of inefficiency. When something goes wrong, fix it of course… but be curious about the circumstances leading to the problem. Could a better design or new feature have helped to avoid the problem? How could we have been notified sooner? Take the time to recap and analyze the contributing factors while they’re fresh in your mind. These are fertile grounds for innovation.
What’s great about this is everyone can contribute and become part of the innovation process.
4.Showcase Progress
The big innovations are easily noticed.. new products that make a big splash in the marketplace, and so on. But most of the innovations that occur are small, incremental improvements that can occur regularly and can come from the mind of anyone and everyone on your team. Don’t let these go unnoticed — point them out, to the team if appropriate. In our company we hold a quarterly “Innovation Forum” to highlight these innovations and solicit ideas for new ones. These micro-innovations act as building blocks to a culture of innovation, from which bigger and more important innovations can be born.
What has worked build a culture of innovation in your organization ?