Fostering an innovative workplace will revolutionise the way your business functions but what are the key steps to being able to deliver this?
Innovation is essential to avoid your business plateauing because it adds value to your business that will allow it to succeed. In today’s ever-changing market and globalisation, innovation is essential to provide you with the edge needed for success.
Ali Uren is the founder and entrepreneur behind Kiikstart, a platform that creates personalised learning using its own unconventional and credible content. The content and resources allow people to create different businesses and careers without the frustration and waste. Having worked with over 70 organisations at length and over 2000 people one on one the program’s completion is in excess of 85% and client outcomes in excess of 90%. This is achieved through the continuous delivery of programs to a diverse range of people and industries and consistent modernisation to create learning based on a modern world.
An incredibly successful business owner and knowledge entrepreneur, Ali shares 5 tips below that will help you create an innovative workplace that will contribute to the continued success of your business.
1. Dedicate space for thinking time and actually value it.
Innovation does not occur if you sequester every opportunity for your team to think and brainstorm new ideas. It is critical to dedicate space and time for thinking and innovation. This requires full commitment from you to value this time so that your staff feel the support and confidence to start innovating.
It needs to be designed as part of daily business operations to become reality – not a bolted on after thought.
2. Stop saying you’re too busy.
It’s time that you move beyond being too ‘busy’ because it puts you at risk of missing what really matters. Every business is incredibly busy, however if you don’t prioritise thinking and reflecting time you will ignore the real issues within the business and fail to rectify them. It’s about making smart changes that allow your staff to be more innovative and reflective during their work day.
If your team says they are too busy ask what they are going to remove or stop doing so they are not busy.
Stop wearing busy as a badge of pride. It is not.
3. Reflection is vital.
Without reflection, the same mistakes get made over and over again. It is vital to reflect to stop this from happening. Reflection should focus on the good as well as any threats or gaps present and anything that is hampering progress and change. Through this, you and your team will be able to identify areas of strength and areas to do different. Reflection can be achieved through adding reflective agendas into team meetings or working it into daily routine.
Set time for staff on a weekly basis and then a process to follow up and debrief. Ask what is being learnt, what needs to be done different and what could we become if we did different from these insights.
Avoid layering project on top of project without the time in between to reflect and ask the robust questions that will allow you to make different decisions.
4. Don’t dwell on the negative.
Reflection will definitely bring up positive and negative aspects, however it is important to move on and think of the future instead of dwelling on the past. Understand what is counter productive to the delivery of high value work and understand what changes have to be implemented to stop this. Focus on how these changes will positively impact the business and how you and your team can keep yourselves accountable in order to achieve this.
5. Act on your innovations and reflections
Innovation and reflections are only effective when they are acted on. There are many avenues that can facilitate this, including Kiikstart where we provide modern and interesting resources to help upskill your workers and increase their innovative capabilities. It’s a platform where new ideas are created, nurtured and managed. This keeps your business moving forward with a distinctly different edge.
If you are ready to foster innovation within your business and create your own unique business space you can own then check out more at Kiikstart’s website, LinkedIn or Facebook.
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