Since innovation is a necessary component for business expansion, managers need to learn how to foster it within the workplace. Companies that are large or small should never stop innovating in their industries. As a manager, you are aware of how difficult it can be to create an innovative team. Many companies spend hours upon hours strategizing how to foster innovation in a team environment. Fortunately, you can achieve the same goals in a much shorter time frame. In this post, you will discover how to promote innovation in the workplace successfully.

Reward Creativity

Managers successfully promote innovation by rewarding employees’ creative ideas. When mangers reward employees for their hard work, employees are more likely to persist. Their motivation to continue their creative thinking increases. To accomplish this outcome, you can offer simple rewards. For instance, a team pizza party portrays gratitude for an entire team that worked together to develop innovative ideas. Whether their ideas can be implemented or not, show your employees gratitude for their imaginative ideas. As a result, you will boost innovation in the workplace and keep employees thinking.

Solicit Input

Many managers fail to create innovative teams because they do not solicit input from employees. Workers often hesitate to speak their mind to their bosses. As a manager, you need to show employees that you want their feedback. One way to encourage feedback is to leave a suggestion box outside of your office. Employees can choose to leave their ideas anonymously or include their names for further inquiry. Either way, you will show employees that you want them to think creatively and share their ideas with you and the rest of the team. Once a week, hold a meeting where you share the ideas left in the box. When ideas are shared, more ideas will spark. As a result, the entire team becomes more innovative.

Develop Processes

Another way to increase innovation in your team is to set processes for coming up with ideas. At times, teams need a push in the right direction. By providing a process to get creativity in the workplace flowing, employees can develop creative ideas faster. There are numerous, easy ways to supply teams with a process. You can create a decision template to assist employees in narrowing down their idea options. Templates should vary based on team-developed ideas and individual ones. However, you decide to implement idea-forming processes, they will promote innovation in the workplace.

Bring In an Expert

If you are struggling to promote innovation in your team, consider bringing in an expert. You can have a consultant come into the office and speak to your team. Or, at the next major corporate event, hire an innovation keynote speaker who can transform how the organization thinks. By resonating with innovative ideas, the entire company can become creative thinkers that leads to more innovation and growth. Sometimes, a professional or expert can provide the much needed boost to jumpstart innovation within the organization.

Encourage Vacations

Although not recognized by most managers, vacations also spark innovative ideas. Sometimes, the workplace can cause stress. When employees are stressed, their creativity levels decrease. Thus, it is a good idea for employees to destress when necessary. Encourage your employees to use their vacation time to do so. Workers can take a 1-2 days off to go hiking or choose to spend an entire week on an island. Either way, the free time to clear their heads will get their creative juices flowing again. Therefore, encouraging employees to take vacations is one way to promote innovation in your team.

Interact with Other Departments

Finally, teams who interact with other departments are more innovative. By interacting with other departments within the same company, employees stay on task while also gaining more insight to other processes. When workers gain more relevant knowledge, they develop ideas at a faster rate. If a sales team is introduced to new advertising strategies created by the marketing department, they can come up with new sales strategies easily. Thus, team work expedites projects. Create a larger team with other departments to promote innovation and increase productivity.

Businesses require innovation to profit and grow. One way for managers to promote innovation within their teams is to reward creativity. Managers who develop idea-forming processes increase creativity in the workplace. By soliciting input, you create an environment based on freedom, which inspires innovative thinking. Encourage employees to take vacations to de-stress. Lastly, interact with teams from your company’s other departments. These are the best ways to promote innovation in the workplace quickly.