Innovation To Help Business Growth

The 5 minute rule

Welcome new ideas and suggestions enthusiastically. If your employees have great ideas but find they are quickly squashed and mocked by their superiors, they will tend to stop sharing their thoughts in fear of more rejection and humiliation. Also don't fight or obstruct change of any kind as this is the ultimate idea crusher.

Consider the "five minute rule" concept.

The rule permits anyone to suggest an idea. Then for the first five minutes after the idea is expressed, only positive comments can be made. By the time the idea is talked about for five minutes it has usually spun into an impromptu brainstorm session, that cultivates truly great ideas and some form of the discussion is often implemented.

If you give an idea appropriate attention, it just may become a solution to a problem, the next great marketing campaign, or even the perfect incubator for your next innovative product or service.

Good or bad - follow through

Do something with all generated ideas. If you encourage ideas, and then sit on them without taking any action, you won't get your staff to generate ideas in the future.

If you must reject or decide not to implement an idea without providing an adequate justification, you will lose the future goodwill and creativity of your creative and thinking staff.

Empower your staff 

If you empower staff, you should see increased initiative, involvement, enthusiasm, innovation and speed in the workplace.

Communicate

To create a "culture" of creativity in your business, the key is to communicate with your staff. If you need to implement any type of change within your organisation you need to communicate the initiative(s) in a way that energises and excites staff. At the same time, you should examine and overcome any hesitancy your staff may have to embrace your proposition.

Believe in your people

If you are initiating change in your organisation it is essential that each staff member feels that he/she has someone that believes in them and is counting on them to succeed. People tend to rise to the occasion and produce when they believe that someone believes in them and is interested in them.

Harvest emotional energy

It is important to align your mission statement to a clear set of human values because values give meaning to people's lives. Organisational performance is directly related to its ability to tap into human potential. For many people, work is one of the most important ways they are able to give expression to who they are in their search for fulfilment. When a person works for a business whose values mirror those of their own they will respond by fulfilling their potential and tapping into their deepest levels of creativity.

Accommodate personal idiosyncrasies

Accommodate personal idiosyncrasies amongst your staff because this may help the creative mind to flourish. Allow your staff the freedom to create and produce how and where they want. Let your employees create the plan to get from A to Z rather than dictate each step in the process. This approach may just spur an otherwise average employee to new heights of creativity and accomplishment.

Influence intrinsic motivation positively

Allow your staff to do what they love and love what they do. Match work to an employee's expertise. Create an environment that will allow employees to retain the intrinsic motivational focus, while supporting their exploration of new ideas.

Freedom to fail and change pace quickly

No matter how well you research your plans, mistakes are bound to happen. Don't foster a culture or dynamics that paralyse efforts to do something new. Be ready to embrace new innovative technology and to change strategies quickly without enormous scrutiny. Doing more with less, in less time, is now a survival necessity for businesses of all sizes.

Checklist for a "committed" innovative workplace culture

Your workplace practices will create the appropriate culture for innovative ideas to flourish if the following business practices are followed:

• Recognise that the human side of business produces the business results.

• Have active participation by senior management with staff co-creating job descriptions, policies, procedures, standards, team affiliations and working conditions.

• Undertake a realistic appraisal of what policies, procedures, job descriptions and controls cannot or need not be altered.

• Eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, policies, procedures and controls.

• Ensure a wide distribution of pertinent market information and internal performance results.

• Employ compensation systems that contract for and reward personal accountability for results.

• Employ training and coaching which develops people skills in self-management, networking and creative collaboration.

• Have a compelling business need for change.

• Encourage leadership which is invested in truth telling and in 360 degree feedback regarding leadership effectiveness.