In our last blog we gave you several tips for sparking innovation within your staff, including encouraging them to work together, investing in reliable software solutions for business like information services or print services that allow employees to give feedback and take surveys, and encouraging employees to engage in trial and error. Here are a few more tips to help you innovate within your company to initiate growth:
• With so much information available online today, people tend to get stuck in the it’s-been-done-before mentality, and don’t pursue any of their ideas. Make sure you help generate motion that breaks past this block. Even if another company has done something somewhat similar, you can still take an idea, make it your own, and turn it into something that is unique and worthwhile. The key to this tip is giving examples and encouraging any ideas with promise that they bring to you.
• Make sure you have a broad definition of innovation. True innovation isn’t limited to the quick, multi-million ideas, but spans the smaller ideas that help grow your company, generate smaller profits, and even those ideas that are simply steps to larger ideas and bigger deals. Make sure your employees don’t feel too much pressure to come up with truly earth-shattering ideas, but come to you with all of their ideas, no matter how small they seem.
• Finally, you need to listen to your employees, at all levels, when they want to speak to you. This involves setting up a system of leadership so employees in the warehouse have someone to bring their ideas and complaints to. Once you hear something, make sure you address it, or they won’t feel inclined to help you improve your company.
