It is no coincidence that the biggest companies in the world are also the world’s leading inventors. Companies like Netflix, Tesla, Amazon etc embrace an innovation culture.
With teams being highly collaborative, Netflix took out Blockbuster, Samsung led to Nokia’s failure, and many other companies fell far behind the competition.
What does this mean? A work environment that supports problem-solving through creative thinking is a must if you want your business to keep growing.
And a decisive way a culture of innovation will be achieved is by moving on from the traditional idea-sharing methods.
Email threads, Slack channels, Discussion boxes, and team meetings come with their drawbacks including- Duplication of ideas, more time and effort required in idea management, and difficulty in tracking idea progress etc.
Essential features of idea management tools eradicate such problems. But first, let’s understand this:
How an idea management tool will help in cultivating a culture of innovation?
#1 Enhanced Idea Generation and Idea Capture
As an innovative manager have you ever sat down in your office one day and thought about a great idea and just sweep it under the carpet and say “No one cares”?
Chances are most of your employees do the same.
Now imagine the number of ideas flowing through your company, ideas that could propel your company’s finances just wasted because your employees don’t have an effective means of putting their ideas down.
Thankfully with an idea management tool, there is a centralised place to effortlessly submit ideas.
An innovative feature in its sense is a feature of anonymously submitting ideas, employees have more freedom and feel confident sharing their ideas.
#2 Improved Idea Evaluation and Selection
You would agree with me that not every idea is the “next big thing”
Ideas within an organization will be difficult to implement because they might be too expensive, too risky or even have zero business impact.
This is why you need an idea management tool to evaluate your business ideas, filter them and then prioritise them.
Management software leads to effortless management of ideas making them easy to prioritize and evaluate.
#3 Streamlining Idea Implementation and Tracking
The steps involved from idea generation to idea implementation are cumbersome, especially where you have responsibilities to take care of in your organization.
Idea management system offers you a helping hand in the following ways-
- Optimizing workflows by breaking them down into simple steps
- Improving communication among team members
- Improves workflow by removing unnecessary steps saving time
- Assigning ownership and tracking the progress of selected ideas, so the burden of monitoring the progression of ideas is lowered
- Monitoring the impact and outcomes of implemented ideas
We have been able to discuss thus far how an idea management tool will help your organization.
Now let’s discuss further and see how to facilitate collaboration and problem-sharing within an organization through an idea management tool
Steps to Cultivate a Culture of Innovation Within Your Organization
86% of employees and executives cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures that eventually lead to business failures.
As an innovative manager, this is terrifying!
Having a tool that will remedy this problem and bring a sense of belonging to every department within your organization should be at the top of your bucket list.
Here is how An idea management tool will help in building a culture of innovation-
#1 Facilitating Cross-Department Collaboration
Following the pandemic, organizations had to split and people started working from their comfort places. This, in some way, added a barrier to employee collaboration.
In fact, across different organizations, some departments feel neglected or feel they have no say in company affairs.
With an idea management tool, even the remote team in your organisation will have a centralised collaborative platform where ideas and feedback will be shared across teams.
As employees will know their ideas matter and interdisciplinary collaboration will be fostered. Thus, idea management software will maximize your team’s productivity.
#2 Promoting Employee Engagement and Participation
In an independent survey conducted by Office Vibe 70% of employees wished they could spend more time with their managers to create a stronger connection with them and with the organization.
With the major responsibilities of innovation managers, it can be difficult to maintain such connections among employees.
But, fear not. Adopting a platform where every employee can contribute to the company’s growth will be a great mitigating factor and a creative way to increase employee engagement.
Diverse points will be shared on a centralised platform. Rewards & recognitions can be given to employees who come up with ground-breaking ideas, making everyone feel more valued.
#3 Supporting Transparent and Inclusive Idea Sharing
A common saying goes like this “Without diversity creativity remains stagnant”
Thankfully within an organization diversity exists across different departments and with an idea management system like InspireIP, diverse viewpoints will be harnessed from all employees.
InspireIP’s effortless idea submission process and accessibility make sharing views A piece of cake.
This will allow every department to have a feeling of inclusivity. With this, the power of employee innovation will be seen.
#4 Driving Continuous Improvement and Learning
As an innovator, you would agree that ideas generally come from personal experiences.
For example, an employee whose childhood was on a big farm and who now works in a finance company would be able to give better advice to his company when it comes to investing in agriculture.
Ideas on an idea capture tool will be visible to everyone and employees will learn from each other’s vast knowledge.
Extensive learning will take place among employees in the process of idea refining and experimentation.
Overcoming Challenges to Fostering an Innovation Culture
The idea management tool is very useful in bringing an organization together and driving an innovation culture.
However, some challenges occur along the way, which could range from resistance from employees to adopt the tool to even convincing board members to buy into the idea.
We will see the best ways to handle these problems.
#1 Addressing Resistance to Change and Risk Aversion
Change is one of the most important components in attaining success in an organization.
Though sometimes change can seem difficult or risky, companies reluctant to change did not face good fortune.
Your employees might not trust the new tool or even understand its usefulness.
Effective education and communication work wonders in this.
As an innovative manager, you will need to pitch the idea to your employees, listen to any questions they might have and demonstrate enthusiasm for the tool.
#2 Ensuring Management Buy-in and Support
It is important to have support from different stockholders across different departments in your organization.
When employees are actively involved in the change process, they will invest in more.
With proper management of various ideas, beneficial and implementable ideas will be easily recognised. And hence, ideas submitted by different departments will be taken step on.
3. Promoting Communication and Feedback Loops
After implementing a suitable ideation tool, as a manager how do you know if your employees are making the best use of the tool?
By using feedback loops.
For context, recent research proves that 4 out of 10 employees who are not involved in a feedback loop start to actively disengage from their roles.
This will lead to employee churn and this is something no manager wants.
Using a feedback loop will ensure proper communication about your employees’ views about the idea management tool. Whether the feedback is positive or negative, necessary steps to address any concern will be taken.
#4 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Idea Management Tools
Researchers at MIT conducted a study using 28 companies and examined their data spanning from 2014 to 2016.
This data showed there was a significant correlation between employees’ ideas implemented and the rate of growth within that span.
In fact, one of our clients in the Manufacturing industry implemented InspireIP for 3 months.
And they saw a clear increase in employee engagement by 40% (More ideas, more action). This in turn led to a 15% increase in their turnover.
Now, integrating an idea management tool and getting your employees intuned with the idea might take some time, but results will start the troop sooner rather than later.
Conclusion
An innovation culture is a must in these times.
The need is to capture as many innovative ideas as possible. Innovating lets companies stay ahead of the competition, develop innovative products, generate more revenue etc.
An idea management tool is a simple software that uses a structured approach to collect, screen, develop and implement ideas. This tool will contribute to building an innovative culture within your organization.
like InspireIP can help in the process of fostering a culture of innovation within an organization leading to innovation success.
