Today is World Creativity and Innovation Day. To be honest, we didn't know there was such a thing. What we do know is that creativity and innovation are built from practice and don't generally happen on one day each year.
We find that companies and organizations that are the most innovative foster this by helping their teams learn, and use tools and effective processes. When we meet with companies, we ask them two seemingly simple questions:
How are you thinking about innovation?
What do you need to do to improve?
The answers to these questions vary by the type and purpose of the organization, and by the company as you might imagine. However, most companies' answers fall into three groups.
SPACE MATTERS
Getting your team into a new space changes people's perspectives. Working in a flexible, creative space with easy tech, different work environments, and a fun factor creates better results, engages your team, and helps bring focus. Zach Hodge, Executive Vice President, Material Handling & Logistics with HODGE puts it this way, "When we come together at the Innovation Lab, we just have more ideas, our team is engaged."
INNOVATION TOOLS
Teams need tools for supporting innovation. They come in many forms but center around having ways to generate and share ideas within the company. Think about how your company or organization gets ideas from your team. Having a clear set of tools for capturing and exploring ideas makes it clear to the team that the company wants them. It sends the message that new ideas matter.
INNOVATION PROCESSES
Fostering innovation within a company takes time. Learning and sharing new processes to support the generation and implementation of new ideas is what drives innovation. Investing in helping your team learn how to facilitate and champion the innovation process is the strongest way to build a culture of innovation within your company.
So...how are you thinking about Innovation? What do you need to do better?
The Innovation Lab can deliver a proven innovation process that produces tangible value. You can choose to have us facilitate an innovation process or train your team to implement our tools, you'll get excellent ROI. Click here to learn more and schedule a chat today.