GBHJ GLOBAL: These 7 Habits Will Help You Inject Innovation Into Every Part of Your Business

Business owners know that competition is fierce to gain adequate market share. To maintain positive and profitable business growth, companies must develop a clear understanding of what they are-and what they are not.

Building an innovative workplace can be elusive for a business, especially if workers are uncertain if there will be repercussions for making mistakes. However, smart leaders can see the value in failure, and will encourage creative thinking on all company levels.

Note: when we speak of innovation, we are including product innovation, process improvements, executing organizational change, and improving employee engagement.

To sustain innovation in your company, practice these seven habits:

#1: Start with the people: find champions and develop a team.

Leaders who take the time to bring the best talent into their organizations, know the rewards. However, finding talent with innovative abilities is challenging.

“The key is to recognize personality traits in candidates that correlate with innovation,” says Rod Pyle, author of Innovation the NASA Way. The character traits needed for innovation include imagination, inspiration, knowledge, boldness, persistence and, occasionally, a contrarian mind-set. These traits provide the tenacity to excel in creative thinking.

How do we accomplish this?

Conduct personality assessments.

Establish workplace teams based on SWOT analysis results.

Make sure leadership embraces the goal of infusing innovative thinking into your work process.

#2: Define the company's direction.

Defining your company's purpose and long-term vision allows your workers to focus their attention on innovative strategies. Using employees' time and energy wisely is your company's best return on investment. Clearly defining the ultimate role of innovation will set the future trajectory of your organization and clarify how everyone is working towards the same goal. With a clear vision, people prioritize which new ideas upon which to focus.

How do we accomplish this?

Review your company's progress and confirm that the company vision is relevant and achievable.

Confirm that each business function is aligned with the current vision.

Review a timetable for accomplishing established business goals.

#3: Maintain consistent communication messages on all levels.

Communication between you and your employees must be consistent on all levels of employees, and it must be honest and respectful. Smart leaders know that trust starts with them, and by modeling open, honest communication, honest communication by your employees will be reciprocated.

You should also share information regularly and encourage open dialogue. This is especially helpful when news is not always good news. Getting into the habit of having regular, ongoing dialogue is essential for trust and for a willingness to try new things.

How do we accomplish this?

Establish a communication vehicle and timetable to share new problem solving strategies.

Design meetings with a clear agenda that includes an opportunity to brainstorm one innovative idea.

Incorporate updates for each of the business functions that can be shared company wide.

#4: Instill a structured thought process.

Through a structured thought process, you can measure tangible results. There are four concrete steps to the innovative process which include (1) defining the essence of the problem, (2) embracing constraints, (3) generating quick-test and select ideas, and (4) executing.

How does this process work?

Generate a prototype example by asking each business function team to show how to improve their work process.

Have each team delineate their answers to each of the four steps.

Share the results from each team to debrief; note where there are commonalities and differences.

#5: Find success in each stage of the innovative process.

Companies that embrace innovation within their culture, find ways to motivate and sustain that attitude. If your organization values integrated solutions, you will need to find employee recognition strategies that allow your workers to identify how their efforts and values are aligned with those of the company.

Employees will be motivated to go above and beyond the set requirements of a project when they believe their voices are being heard and they are being recognized for their efforts to further the company's mission.

How do we do this?

Establish a recognition program based on employee input.

Establish benchmarks for each step of a project and celebrate when a benchmark is successfully achieved.

Provide “After Action Reviews” (AARs) for each stage that is completed to learn from challenges.

#6: Be willing to make a mistake.

Trial and error is a part of being innovative. Anyone working on new ideas needs to know that you have their backs. When projects fail, and they will, workers who learn and move on will become more innovative.

Risks will be taken when employees are encouraged to innovate and learn from failures. However, employees will become risk adverse if they are unsure of what you expect, or are not given room to practice their own style of work.

How do we build for success?

Execute well on a few good innovations and complete AAR's to inform future projects.

Abandon the belief that any competitive advantage can be sustained without innovation.

Build capacity in the workforce to innovate repeatedly and consistently.

#7: Cut out products and services that are not working.

Products that people don't buy and processes that are becoming cumbersome should be eliminated so that your staff can embark on fresh ideas and productive activities. More important than financial resources, time is a finite resource and people need to be engaged to be contributing to the bottom line.

This means you must be aware of obsolete ways of doing things. An innovative culture is an optimistic culture. The belief that employees can create new solutions will lead to a motivated workforce-people don't like feeling like they're wasting time.

How do we keep moving forward?