Creating a Culture of Innovation in Your Team

#23, September 2, 2008

What does innovation mean in your team? For teams involved in research and development or quality improvement, the answer may be obvious. But it isn't obvious for teams that do the same work week in, week out; month in, month out.

What I have found is that everyone has thoughts about how things could be improved - they see things that could be changed, fixed or improved that would make work easier, would make more sense, or achieve better results. Most people just don't call this innovation.

Part of the reason they don't call it innovation is they think everyone else can see it too. They don't realize that other people don't see things the same way they do, and they may think that no one is interested in their ideas anyway.

As a leader you can tap into your team's creativity and resourcefulness to make sure their ideas don't go to waste. But first you need to believe that they do have ideas worthy of being heard, and then create the opportunity for them to speak up.

What has worked best for me is to divide my team up into small groups of 3 or 4 people, and ask them this question:

What have you noticed that if changed, fixed or improved would increase our team's performance?

To get the best results from this exercise:

  1. Give each team member large Post-It® notes and a sharpie pen to write down their own ideas first, rather than call their ideas out.
  2. Post their ideas on a flip chart or wall so they can be sorted into topics.
  3. Ask team members to volunteer to take responsibility for goals identified and form sub-groups do develop and implement plans.
When you do this on a regular basis, at least every other month, team members start to pay more attention to what they are seeing, and take ownership for continually improving the team's performance.

Keep reading our Weekly Leadership Tips for ways you can create a work environment where all team members are engaged, committed to your organization, and passionate about doing a great job every time.

Learning how to create a culture of innovation is just one idea from a vast wealth of information Leadership Strategies International has to offer about leadership. How invested are your employees in the vision of your company? Are you doing all that you can as a leader to engage and retain your employees' interest?

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© 2007 Keith Ayers. All rights reserved.

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