Everyone has an idea running through their mind, but the main problem is how to put it to use. Having an idea is not just enough but implementing it creatively is the real deal. Over the years great innovations have been implemented by various people that many believe to be creative and skillful. Contrary to the popular belief that innovation is meant for a certain type of people, well that is a wrong belief. Innovation is said to be one’s ability to be able to generate ideas whereas, without an improvement on yourself or being unable to implement it, you are far from innovation.
Being innovative can be achieved by improving oneself and one’s skills. Many of us can become successful innovators, though the process can be comprehensive and there will be a need for various skills. Creativity is very much needed to be more innovative because it is one of the things that powers innovation. Creativity and innovation go side by side because they are both essential for a company’s growth. Therefore, every company’s owners or workers have to improve themselves to achieve a better output.
The problem is being innovative these days is not hard to come by, based on research people don’t just have enough time to process ideas and also a lack of incentives says, Randon Morris. Then, what solution can we give to these hurdles to be overcome? To overcome these barriers in your offices or companies, you can choose to help your teammates or teams where you notice there is a lack of innovative ideas by applying the below-listed techniques to individuals or groups of people.
Recognize And Explore The Hurdles That Hinder Innovation
To get the best out of your team members, you need to know the reasons hindering them from exploring their innovative skills. Call them up individually or collectively to ask questions from them. For example, you could start with, “I see lots of potential in you, and I know you are very creative, but I have not seen much of it being implemented in the projects given to you, can you let me know the reasons behind this?” Do not be surprised when you start hearing things like we are not allowed to make sure of our ideas or we are being restricted by the organization.
As a team leader or a CEO of an organization, the tendency to be defensive can be tempting, but you need to be open-minded enough to take in all their complaints by writing them down. When they are allowed to share their thoughts, this will make them be at liberty to keep sharing ideas. When there is a chance given to team members to share their ideology, there will be an improvement in the organization/company.
Discuss The Major Hurdles
So far the hurdles have been recognized, you can choose the major and important ones and tackle them. This enables you to know the root cause for decreased innovative ideas. Most times people complain of a too-tight schedule and this might be caused by too much workload and maybe their days are dominated with lots of meetings. This alone can hinder productive ideas as there is not even enough time to feed themselves lunch.
Another hindrance might be, that there are no incentives for innovative ideas. And as long there are no incentives for this cause, they might not be willing to dedicate their energy to non-important things. Lots of people work to earn money, if there is no encouragement or performance review on such things, they won’t be motivated to even bring out-there ideas. Therefore for the forwardness of an organization or a company, these should be put into consideration and once these reasons are listed, finding a solution should be the best says, Randon Morris.
Work On How To Overcome These Hurdles
Let there be an opportunity given to your team members to contribute to how the hurdles can be overcome. Make sure you get ideas out of them and allow them to think out of the box, with no constraint whatsoever. Well, they might be too scared or shy to bring out their ideas, when this is noticed; you can help by contributing your ideas by suggesting reducing the number of meetings or encouraging performance checks or incentives. Those suggested ideas will push some to speak out. Some organization has made use of this technique and it has indeed worked for them. Some even discovered during this process that it was because of a disconnection between the leaders and team members.
Finally
If there is no motivation for innovative ideas, the` ideas will all die. Innovative ideas sometimes need some cheering and encouragement before one can get the confidence to spill them out. When the hurdles causing a lack of innovative ideas are properly worked on, there will be rapid changes in the organization. When your team members realize how much you like and love their ideas, they tend to be a more constant flow of ideas, and with your word of encouragement or I would rather say incentives, they will want to contribute more to the company’s growth says, Randon Morris.
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