Why are innovative ideas being missed?
It generally comes down to a lack of process for collecting and developing these ideas. From the workers that were surveyed, 37% said shared ideas are lost or unacknowledged, 27% said there was a lack of interest in their ideas, and 27% said there was a lack of incentives to share ideas in the first place.
Is the question ‘how do we innovate?’
Guest lecturer at Cranfield University and innovation expert Cris Beswick describes innovation as being “like teenage sex; everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it.” And it seems that many happily reinforce the importance of innovation but struggle to address the ‘how to’.
Engagement
Innovation is often associated with research and development or IT but it should be woven into every aspect of business at every level. Challenging any traditional ‘them and us’ roles is important as is trying to adopt an attitude that sees employees as potential solutions to any problems. Engagement is so important in enabling a culture of trust between management and workers, and an innovative workplace culture should include managers that are willing to experiment and open themselves up to failure.
Helping to find answers to problems and improving the organisation should be everyone’s business. Regular team meetings offer a time to reflect on what went well and what didn’t. Offering time and space to step back from day to day tasks and discuss ideas may allow employees to speak more openly about potential innovations.
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