There’s more evidence that UK businesses are lagging behind when it comes to innovation. Apparently we’ve dropped even further behind our international competitors and have one of the lowest rates of employee innovation!
A new report by ORC International suggests that less than half of respondents feel that innovation and creativity are highly valued in their workplace, and employees in the UK are less likely to feel that they would be recognised for coming up with new and innovative ways of working.
The UK’s biggest decline, compared to 2012, was around employee involvement when it comes to generating ideas and making suggestions. There are clearly blockages in how businesses are going about enagaging their employees when it comes to innovation.
So, how do innovative businesses ‘tap in’ to their employees ideas? Well, our experience suggests it’s all about…
– Leadership! Winning businesses ensure that innovation is an integral part of the way they do business! They have a clear vision and this is driven by the leaders – they create time to think and work strategically, they get ‘innovation’ on the agenda and they encourage and support their people to do the same!
– Systems and Processes! They establish simple processes to generate ideas and suggestions from customers, their people and their support networks. They might not all create ‘20% time’ like Google who ensure that all their employees spend at least 20% of their time on non core activities, but they establish simple processes that ensure that ideas are generated, and suggestions for improvement are made. See here how Tim Cook of Apple does it! and here to read about ‘I Like…. I Wish…. I Wonder…..’ a simple ‘process’ employed at Pulse.
– Creating The Climate! This is about engaging people to get involved and contribute. It’s also about allowing, encouraging, even pushing people to ‘fish in different ponds’ – that means creating time to get out of the ‘day to day’, out of their own teams and departments and their ‘comfort zones’! It’s also about ‘championing their champions’ – rewarding and recognising those that get involved and contribute! Click here to see how winning leaders do this!
– Taking Action! Winners take action, not notes! In innovation driven businesses, time, effort and resources are put into making things happen and this is monitored and measured – it is certainly not left to chance!
So, how does your business measure up?
Are you above average?
Well, to find out you can….
DOWNLOAD OUR ‘APROACH TO INNOVATION ASSESSMENT’ TOOLKIT!
to find out!
Why not get your team to do the same, create a bit of time to discuss the findings, and then crucially…. DO SOMETHING!
