Innovation begins by unifying disciplines. Crucial to fostering truly innovative culture is knowledge-sharing. To isolate business units is to miss the opportunity to learn and include the experiences of each discipline. In a business, the takeaways of the management team aren’t so far removed from the knowledge the technology team needs to work better. Collaborate within your own organisation, share ideas and work as a single informed entity.
Adopt a culture of cross-functional collaboration. No organisation, and certainly no person within the organisation, operates in isolation. The idea of collaboration is based the on the premise that a higher number of minds increases the likelihood of more innovative solutions. Every employee, contractor, manager or leader has their individual bank of ideas and learnings, and the more an organisation promotes connecting these minds, the greater its business competency. As is often said, organisations don’t innovate, people do.
Innovation structures adopted by an organisation must be sustainable across time and space and allow people within the organisation to evolve within it. The structure will shape the products or services an organisation provides, so like business strategies that can be deliberate or emergent, it is important to strive to understand the reason for innovation.
To introduce innovation principles into the regular business flow, consider group power. Gather a group of employees and break them down into small teams. Discuss ideas that directly give insight into processes that impede efficiency. Pare down to the processes that are most disrupting and think of actionable alternatives.
Innovation is challenging. Introducing a new idea within an organisation and bringing it to the market requires courage. The biggest challenges lay within companies, causing some of the most creative ideas to be abandoned prematurely in the absence of encouragement. For companies to see their innovative ideas reach fruition, it is crucial to recognise the people that embody its ideas. It is necessary to share stories of people that push the limits. Since innovation is born through people, it is important to create a culture that rewards breakthrough ideas.
Source: Financial Express
