How to Make Your Business More Innovative

Learn how leading companies build innovative workplaces

Innovation starts within. Inside you. Inside your business.

Innovation is a creative process. A process that requires critical thinking involving various sources to propel a business forward in a marketplace.

Ideas are everywhere. Even outside your market — media, customers, suppliers, competitors or employees are potential sources.

Tap into your sources to crowdoutsource innovation.

This article lists 21 ways that companies employ to be more innovative.

1. Fear of the unknown

Employees and managers can fear innovation due to the unknown.

As a leader, it's your job to remove these fears.

Implementing innovation through strategic planning, policy, culture, attitude or incentives can improve a company’s innovativeness. Mission statements to convey business goals, vision and values can help to encourage new idea generation to achieve said goals.

Using innovation to come up with a way to improve a company, product or service can successfully achieve business objectives.

2. Innovative culture

It’s rare that companies promote free thinking by employees, as a result, they lose out on one of their biggest assets — collective thought.

Imagine, all those minds, talking and walking around with great ideas yet could be fearful or submissive to share.

Businesses need an open-door policy. An incentive to encourage employees to share ideas. If you do not, start now. Before long, employees will embrace the challenge that comes with innovative projects and deliver real results.

3. Leave your comfort zone

Be willing to leave your comfort zone and encourage those around you to do likewise. No matter what your business is, there’s always a way that things have been done. This is an innovation prison. Change it.

Adhering to the same techniques hinders the ability to think differently, to think creatively and develop new ideas.

4. Think big, heck, think HUGE

If you could give your customers anything they desire, what would it be?

Okay, maybe you cant figure that out right now, but start trying to figure it out. I’m sure there are some amazing ideas waiting to be released.

Your customers will thank you for it.

What would be managing an innovative team or company look like? Think about it. How would it operate? What could you do for your customers?

Start brainstorming, and find a way to get there. Write it down. Truly innovative ideas tend to start with a pen and paper.

Remember to think HUGE — like Apple.

5. Research

Look where you’ve never looked before.

When you’re trying to get a feel for what your customers are looking for, you probably head to the same place every time. Think as you did in the past.

Rethink your approach and do something new.

Check out blogs or forums online about products or services that you offer and learn. What do the search results look like?

People are honest on forum sites. You may uncover something that you didn't know before. A comment could trigger a spark, an idea that you can develop. Follow it. See where it leads.

Also, you might read complaints, the same thing over and over. That tells you something about what you’re target audience wants.

6. Spend a little

Open your wallet to give yourself and your team time to think. It kills some employers to see employees not being “productive”, measured by task output.

Doing something exceptionally well is a loss-leader if its the wrong thing.

Taking time to think can go a long way. Thinking time is one of the greatest innovation tools available to all of us. Unfortunately, the uptake is low.

7. Hire misfits

Hire those who think differently.

If you run a business, chances are you have employees working on particular assignments. You may not want to take them away from those tasks.

If so, you can always hire, assign a select few people who have the capacity or even hire an outside company to review where your company is at to think of ways to separate you from the competition. Secure your future.

You may think of this as an expense right now, but all it takes is one truly innovative idea, and you can take your business to the next level.

8. Think differently

When it comes to business innovation, don’t limit yourself to what you know today. Or worse, what you’re comfortable with.

You need to think outside the box, beyond the box. Seek out creative ideas and inspiration from various sources, and take time to think.

An innovative mindset can bring your business to the next level.

9. Commit to the cause

Commitment is required from the top — at the most senior level. The Board must be committed to the pursuit of Innovation.

Shareholders have to understand the difference between short term outlay and long term gain.

A clear Mission Statement is a necessity. A vision is paramount.

10. Competitor awareness

When Steve Jobs went to P.A.R.C he saw an opportunity. Apple gained from his vision. Xerox didn’t see what Jobs saw.

Your competitors may not have the vision or innovative company culture to develop what they have. So take advantage, because that will change.

You don’t need to re-invent the wheel. The simplest ideas are often the best.

11. Get out of here (or there)

Get out of your bubble — the office — explore the outside world.

• Talk to customers
• Talk to suppliers
• Most importantly — listen intently

12. Question everything

Ask questions, and often:

• “What if?”
• “Why?”
• “Why not?”

13. Listen to your future

Creative ideas may not be heard at your company if nobody is listening. You need to encourage your employees to voice their ideas.

Many ideas from frontline employees are brought to their managers only to have them stolen for the manager’s benefit. It happens all of the time and it stifles creativity across the organization.

If you’re wondering how to get innovative ideas, listen to your employees. Enact a policy so that employees' ideas are heard.

14. Engage

An engaging workplace is essential to the creation of a new innovative idea.

You need to make your employees feel engaged at work. They need to aspire to new things instead of getting bogged down in the day to day details.

You can create an engaging atmosphere by holding innovation and brainstorming workshops and meetings where everyone’s voice is heard.

Most people lose motivation at work once they discover that their voice is not being heard. They lose interest in trying to improve and go with the flow.

If this is the case, you need to change your cultural approach to innovation.

15. Inspire to innovate

Inspiration is at the heart of innovation. Are your people inspired? Take a look around your office. Is it conducive to inspiration?

Work with a designer to create inspiring spaces. Like cubicles for productivity and concentration, providing employees with areas that are conducive to creativity, dialog, and inspiration should be top of the list.

It may sound silly at first, but improving your office will give your employees a boost of inspiration — clutter can clutter the mind. Look at some of the most innovative businesses today, then look at their office. Like Apple or Google. Their offices inspire innovative thinking.

16. Listen and respond

Listening, engaging and inspiring employees is worthless if you don’t respond to innovative thinking. It may seem crazy at first, but patience and perseverance will deliver results.

Once you adopt an innovative company culture, you’ll witness a change in how your employees think as well.

Ideas will improve in time and you’ll develop a process to respond to ideas. Many will not be good, but they’re part of the innovative process.

No idea should go unheard or not receive a response of some kind.

17. People first

Value people. Value their ideas. Value their innovative ability.

Employees are your most valuable asset for innovation. To develop a culture of an innovative company, you need to value employees. This might mean rethinking the corporate structure.

To produce innovative thinkers, you need an innovative structure, one that encourages and nurtures innovation.

18. Think

You know that crazy idea you had a while ago? The one you felt could really help your business, but you thought there was no way it could happen.

You let it pass. Why? The onus is on business leaders to capture employee ideation.

Ask yourself, why can’t I do this? Before you come up with lots of excuses, just think of ways that you can make this happen. When your brain is in a creative mode you’ll be surprised at how many great ideas pop into your head.

The onus is on business leaders to capture employee ideation.

19. Incentify and reward

Incentives encourage innovation. As such, HR should introduce a reward mechanism for innovative employees. An innovation program.

Promotions, salary increases or a bonus for innovative employees could be implemented to encourage others.

Sponsoring free training programs, workshop-seminars about the benefits of innovation for employees is another idea. Meals or events with key members of the leadership team can influence communication to enhance innovation.

20. Play and have fun

Business thinking and routine work can become a rigid process. Innovation requires bending the rules, branching out, having some fun too.

When you generate knowledge and insight through non-traditional ways like free exploration, improv, experiments, levity, rapid prototyping or limit-testing, work feels like play but the results can mean serious business.

21. Collaborate to innovate

Innovations are rarely made by a “lone genius.” Insights come through thoughtful, non-judgmental group sharing of ideas.

Collaborative inquiry is a process of sustained, effective dialogue with those who have a stake in the game. Drawing on various stakeholders’ points of view can contribute to the complexity, but it also unveils key opportunities.

This focus involves asking searching questions and exercising critical thinking without expecting immediate answers.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, allow me to quote an insightful piece by Blake Lazur, cited from his article entitled How Entrepreneurs Change the Way They Think:

“Coming up with innovative ideas is not all about thinking differently, but in seeing differently. Incredible makers, pioneers, and entrepreneurs take a gander at the world in manners that are not quite the same as what the majority of humans do. This is the reason they see openings and opportunities that others miss.” — Blake Lazur

On that note, I’ll leave you with three takeaway articles about innovation:

1. Three types of innovation

2. Make ‘design thinking’ part of your startup

3. The personality profile of a ‘design thinker’

As Blake said, “This is how we build the future.”— Blake Lazur