Competition is getting tougher by the day. What can set a Company or an Organization apart from its competitors is how they manage their creative resources. More importantly, it depends on how they extract creative nectar from their employees.
Innovation management widely deals in helping organizations make the most of their employees. It could vary from initiating engaging brainstorming activities to smartly forming teams that can work together seamlessly to bring home more profits.
Need for innovation management
The answer is rather straightforward. Having a great idea doesn’t cut it anymore. Being in the industry for more than a decade doesn’t matter either. You have to be on your best game at all times. The consumer can quite literally throw you off your seat and give it to your competitors overnight. That’s not a pleasant thought, now, is it?
It is hard to get in the game, but it’s even harder to stay put. Solution? Innovation management.
A thorough and objective assessment of your resources can go a long way. It helps you understand what you possess. You can further decide on what to do with it, given its quantity and quality.
It’s similar to how each football team has a handful of aces, and if they use them wisely, they can take the cup home. The entire team doesn’t have to be great at football. They just need to move in harmony and support the team to grab the win. There’s almost equal pressure on each player to do their part right. The pressure can fluctuate as the game proceeds, but nonetheless it is distributed equally among the members.
Manage your creative resources
There are many ways a company can deploy to harness their company’s artistic prowess. However, here are a few most successful (well tested) techniques to achieve that:
1. Engage
Talk. Encourage conversations. Put the hierarchies aside and let the conversation flow. Promoting healthy, constructive discussions in the workplace establishes a growth mindset in the employees. You might experience a few bumps in the beginning, but soon, the team will be able to trust each other and work for the common goal of taking the company to newer heights.
Having trust and faith in each other can get rid of the misunderstandings between the employees. Distrust and disagreements cause drifts and hinder the creative process.
2. Become approachable
Pull the team in. Show them you value their suggestions and opinions. Encourage them to spend more time on their ideas instead of discarding them immediately. Give them the space to let their imagination run wild. Even if the idea is not great, let it sit on the table for a while. Maybe another teammate can chip in and suggest a few improvements.
3. Stay updated
Always try to keep yourself and the team updated with the latest in the industry and market. It’s important to know what’s happening and where you stand to plan the road ahead.
Plus, it’s a great source of inspiration. You can also get amazing ideas from the shortcomings of the launched products in the market.
4. Common space for innovation
You can use innovation management systems to provide a shared space for innovation and brain dumping within the organization. It’s a great way to get the ball rolling. You don’t even need extra space or room in the office, just enthusiastic and active employees.
5. Be open
Allow your team to be a part of the decisions being made regarding the business. If they ask questions, help them understand how the organization works with patience. You may not always be able to disclose information. But you can try to be as transparent as possible without hurting the business.
6. Rewards and recognition
Being recognized and rewarded for your hard work is the best feeling ever. Do not deny your employees that feeling. Holding competitions that ask your employees to present innovative ideas for a future product can also make them proactive.
Take help when needed
There are many innovation consulting firms and innovation management training that can help you if you feel lost.
1. Innovation culture assessment
It is an assessment of the environment the employees work in. Does their workplace stimulate creativity, and if yes, then to what extent? It doesn’t have to be quantitative. It could be as simple as a survey where the employees have the choice to be anonymous.
The assessing team can then study the answers to understand where the organization is lacking and what it can do to make the situation better.
2. Innovation management system
An innovation management system is a platform where employees can upload and share ideas. It can be easily used as a place where their projects can be managed from the stage of inception until completion. But instead of the technical side, it deals with the conceptual side of things.
3. Strategy and Innovation Alignment
These tools trace success and failure over the timeline set for a particular project. It helps track how well strategy aligns with the end goal at every stage.
4. Leadership and skills assessment
Leadership and skill assessment are instead personal tests to see how each individual is doing within the team. It helps decide the roles of each member in the team depending on their strengths and weaknesses. It helps create harmony within the organization as most of the people are assigned work they are good at.
In a Nutshell
Don’t stay behind. Assess your situation and decide what you can do to motivate your team. If they are already motivated, use these limited resources wisely. For more ideas on how you can further leverage your business, visit our website.
