Instill a Culture of Innovation

During a recent talk to the Project Management Institute, I shared some best practices on how to introduce innovation into teams. Specifically on how to support a team in transitioning from “idealizing” to creating valuable outcomes. These outcomes in turn create an unstoppable culture of innovation.

[Tweet “Innovation does not just arise from creative ideas.”]

One of the key points was the fact that innovation does not just arise from creative ideas, but rather form at the intersection of three (3) fundamental components.

Wondering what these three key components are?

Expertise and Knowledge:

A gentlemen who attended the conference spoke of his hobby of improving the performance of cars. When the group brainstormed ideas to further improve his hobby, they didn’t come up with anything relevant. Why? The first key component to innovation is those involved must possess the expertise and knowledge to understand how their idea might be applied.

Creative Thinking:

Within each of us exists the ability to think creatively. Unfortunately various time constraints and our environment can stifle creative thinking. To increase creativity we need to create distance from our problem by either leaving the situation physically, or taking time to let our creative juices flow. By stepping away from methodology, environment and constraints, our brains shift into creative action!

[Tweet “We can think more creatively when we step away from our methodology.”]

Motivation:

Although most of are motivated intrinsically, there are extrinsic rewards that can support increasing our creativity. By continuously motivating teams to offer new ideas and solutions we can increase their ability to be creative. By capturing employee ideas, introducing them into the work environment and ensuring transparency in progress, employees can be motivated to be creative.

Question: Are you nurturing the right environment for innovative ideas for your teams to flourish? How can you ensure the right expertise, creative thinking and motivation exist in order to initiate innovation amidst your team?