How can companies create a culture that encourages innovation on a consistent basis?

For tech industry leaders like Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Samsung, serial innovation doesn’t just happen by chance. It’s a result of realizing the need for a fine-tuned innovation culture to identify emerging trends and business opportunities first and then develop those ideas at scale.

With a culture of innovation in place, businesses are equipped to produce breakthrough services and deliver incremental improvements to existing products that consumers come to expect.

Where cultural innovation really succeeds is by capitalizing on the creativity of every employee.

So, how can you do it? Use these tips to create an innovation culture at every level of your organization.

What is an innovation culture?

As we’ve discussed before, an innovation culture can be described as a work environment where unconventional thinking and the democratization of ideas are welcomed, encouraged, and applied. Whether a CEO or summer intern, a culture of innovation looks to everyone to contribute.

Every team member in an innovative organization is considered capable (and often expected) of making suggestions for improvement, offering impromptu critiques, and championing change.

Ideally, an innovative culture is composed of different people from all backgrounds and walks of life. Bringing employees together from different disciplines and departments to work as a team can prove helpful in challenging the status quo and breaking away from predictable ways of thinking.

Benefits of creating an innovation culture

An innovation culture isn’t just something shiny to point to in board meetings or annual reports–it can have real positive impacts on your business. 

Creating a culture of innovation can:

• Drive business growth.

• Increase competitive advantage.

• Establish a cycle of continuous improvement.

• Support diversity in the workplace.

• Attract and retain top talent.

• Increase productivity and efficiency.

But creating a culture that encourages innovation doesn’t happen overnight.

How can companies foster the generation of new ideas?

In theory, harnessing the power of cultural innovation seems easy enough. You could simply go ahead and let everyone start churning out concepts one after another in stream-of-consciousness thought.

But it doesn’t happen like that. Giving people the freedom to innovate involves more thought.

For one, it helps to provide your team the right tools. An innovative organization often relies on open workspaces to promote creativity and foster collaboration. Dividing larger groups up into smaller ones with access to whiteboards, sticky notes, and freehand drawing encourages innovation and bold thinking.

Virtual whiteboards, like Lucidspark, let team members capture thoughts and ideas in real time through brainstorming sessions, which act as launchpads for iteration. Plus, you don't have to start from scratch. Save time by using one of the many free brainstorming templates available.

Of course, establishing this culture of innovation goes far beyond the work environment itself.

An innovative organization must pay attention to how its brainstorm meetings are conducted. Leaders should embolden employees and teams to think through their concepts. In these early stages, it doesn’t matter if every idea is good or not, it’s more about exhausting every possibility.

Tips for creating an innovation culture 

For an innovation culture to take root, an organization needs proven methodologies and strategic approaches to inspire its people to embrace technology, spark their curiosity and passion for knowledge, and ease barriers in the creative process.

When learning how to create a culture of innovation, some lessons will feel intuitive. Other lessons will be less obvious. But in any case, it will prove useful to apply the following innovative values. 

Break down silos

Rigid hierarchies tend to dampen creativity. Someone on the team might get inspired to pursue an idea outside of their field of expertise or role within the overall organizational structure. Once they begin to feel resistance or a lack of support from leadership, the path to innovation is lost.

People with a growth mindset—those who are quick to develop new abilities, value the pursuit of knowledge wherever it leads, and express initiative—should be given latitude, not have their creativity stifled.

For such individuals to boldly solve problems, chart new courses, and work on important issues, silos cannot exist within a culture of innovation. By hiring new employees (or identifying existing ones) who possess cross-functional backgrounds and demonstrate strong interpersonal skills, an innovative organization is better equipped to build rapport, gain confidence, and win allies.

Changing roles, wearing different hats, or taking on a variety of responsibilities is another benefit of breaking down silos within a corporation. It’s also what makes an innovation culture so resilient.

Encourage employees to ask questions

Another key aspect of creating a culture of innovation is to make the workplace a safe place for asking questions. Being inquisitive is something that should be normalized and rewarded within an innovative organization. Plus, every all-hands meeting should include time for a Q&A session.

Other ways to make a corporate environment more open and conducive to asking questions are to:

• Offer weekly or monthly AMA (ask me anything) sessions hosted by company leaders.
• Declare a no-repercussion policy to let employees feel safe about asking questions.
• Withhold judgment and resist knee-jerk responses to difficult or in-depth questions.
• Make a point to always follow up or give updates on questions from past meetings.
• Incentivize asking questions with contests or rewards.

The more questioning becomes part of the work environment, the sooner it will become a habit among employees. To keep Q&A sessions informative, productive, and proactive, the questions being asked should focus on achieving a desired outcome or tackling a genuine concern. 

Encourage all employees to voice ideas

Within an innovative culture, it’s a given that every employee has the potential for creativity, and that potential can be developed over time with the right amount of encouragement.

The ability of team members to voice their ideas is something valued in a culture of innovation because an innovative organization understands the reciprocal nature of the work relationship. It’s more than employees putting in their time or companies only offering pay for hours worked. People want to feel valued and supported by their employers and free to express opinions or ideas.

Who better to identify outdated processes or areas needing improvement than the employees on the frontlines? People in an innovative organization feel empowered to voice their ideas and make basic changes to help improve quality, productivity, or perhaps their own job satisfaction.

The reason employees hesitate to speak up and share their thoughts isn’t out of fear, but rather they don’t have trust in management to listen and take the necessary steps for change.

By that logic, don’t just ignore employees' ideas. Whenever possible, keep your people in the loop. If their idea results in an innovation, credit them for the suggestion. 

Keep open communication

So far, your people are breaking down silos, they’re asking questions, and feeling comfortable with voicing their ideas. But if you’re really planning to keep everyone on the same page while building your flourishing culture of innovation, the lines of communication must be kept open.

Open communication requires systems that promote collaboration and the steady exchange of ideas. This can mean daily standup meetings, weekly gatherings, group emails, or a dedicated Slack channel that allows everyone to contribute to the conversation.

After all, innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. An innovative organization will thrive if its employees keep the conversation going and don’t hold back on information.

Technology alone cannot solve the problem of keeping communication open. More often, it comes down to strong and fulfilling work relationships. The resulting psychological safety and trust between team members who enjoy working together is critical to a culture of innovation.

Set objectives

Within a culture of innovation, there’s a paradoxical truth to how employee objectives are set. For one, each goal should be clear enough to keep team members aligned. Two, the process should be loose enough for team members to exercise autonomy in how a goal is reached.

It’s in the autonomy to set (and achieve) one’s objectives that innovation routinely happens.

Leaders are expected to clarify the organization's overarching goals to help employees set their objectives. Whether reducing costs for an existing product or coordinating the launch of a new service, each employee should know how their efforts contribute to achieving the goal.

Reward failure and success

If you spend enough time in any innovative organization, one thing is certain: not every idea is a winner. But a culture of innovation acknowledges the inherent value in every failure.

If you want your team to embrace the innovation culture mindset, demonstrate the importance of every contribution being made to the group effort, even if things don’t work out as planned. A culture of innovation is a system created to support the company’s goals along with its people.

Be consistent in rewarding and recognizing innovative behaviors, including risk-taking efforts by team members where the results aren’t necessarily positive, effective, or profitable. By choosing only to reward success, the message everyone receives is to play it safe and don’t push boundaries.

In the event of failure, highlight all the behind-the-scenes work and valuable lessons learned by the team. To reward failure is to incentivize and motivate employees to attempt something new without the fear of punishment for trying. By removing the stigma of failure, bold ideas emerge.

In the eyes of an innovative organization, failure is just one step closer to the next breakthrough. In this manner, rewarding failure should be seen as making investments toward future success  

Studies show that innovation is a driving cause of long-term business success. Focusing your resources on creating a culture that encourages innovation will fuel company growth and give your business a competitive edge. 

Knowing how to create a culture of innovation is only the beginning. What’s most important is to apply that knowledge and allow your business to redefine itself as an innovative organization.