How Do You Foster Creativity and Innovation in Your Workplace? Share Your Insights!

Dear all,

I am conducting a survey and requesting your assistance. The findings and report shall be shared with all the participants.

- How have you developed and maintained a corporate culture that fosters creativity and innovation?
- What systems and processes are considered important in promoting creativity and innovation?
- Describe a specific initiative where an innovative approach to a business problem led to a massive improvement in product development, customer service, etc., rather than incremental change.

I look forward to your responses and hope that we can all learn from each other's experiences and ideas.

Cheers,
Rajat

Dear Rajat,

We have started a weekly meeting, especially on Fridays, where we discuss the problems we are facing and seek ideas and opinions from all. This has helped gather approaches and ideas from different perspectives!

Thanks,
Bhawana

Dear Rajat,

In our organization, we consider innovation and creativity as our Company Values.

We have made laminated cards that give a brief about these values along with two others. The total of 4 values are as follows:

1. Innovation & Creativity
2. Learn & Focus
3. Make somebody's day (Build teams and relationships)
4. Spread optimism & enjoy whatever you are doing

We give these small pocket-sized cards to all new joiners at the time of induction and instruct them to practice the same since they are a part of the performance appraisal system. Hence, from day one of joining, they start implementing those values.

We have allocated 10 marks for making suggestions/ideas and we ask them to implement them at their level to check the results/outcomes. This also helps us gather significant data about our practices and processes that may be becoming outdated. (Otherwise, everyone suggests for others rather than implementing.)

In the same context, we also give awards for the successful implementation of these ideas during our annual conference where all top management personnel are present. (Recognition from the top.)

We usually focus on daily systems and processes that can be improved with the latest scenarios and technology.

Due to numerous incidents ranging from creating cross-functional teams for conducting major events (where the manager had left) to daily attendance formats, we have achieved good success. This has also helped in bonding employees with the HR department.

I hope this information is helpful.

Regards,

Shailendra

Dear Rajat,

Is there anything you would like to add to our process?
Have you found anything useful for you from our process?

Regards,
Shailendra

Hi Bhawana & Shailendra,

Thank you so much for your comments and feedback! I am extremely sorry for the delayed response.

Bhawana, morning meetings are a good idea, but have they helped to solve your problems?

Thanks

Dear Shailendra,

In our organization, we consider innovation and creativity as our company values. We have made laminated cards that give a brief about these values along with two others. The total of 4 values are:

1. Innovation & Creativity
2. Learn & Focus
3. Make somebody's day (build teams and relationships)
4. Spread optimism & enjoy whatever you are doing

We give these small pocket-sized cards to all new joiners at the time of induction and tell them to practice the same since they are part of the performance appraisal system. Hence, from day one of joining, they start implementing those values. We have allocated 10 marks for making suggestions/ideas and ask them to implement them at their level to check the results/outcomes, which also helps us gather significant data about our practices and processes that may be becoming outdated. Otherwise, everyone tends to suggest rather than implement.

In the same context, we also give awards for the successful implementation of these ideas during our annual conference where all top management personnel are present. This recognition from the top is crucial. We mainly focus on improving daily systems and processes with the most recent scenarios and technology.

Due to many incidents, from forming cross-functional teams for conducting major events (where the manager has left) to daily attendance formats, we have achieved success and also strengthened the bond between employees and the HR department.

I hope this information helps you. Brilliant input. How do you ensure these ideas don't fizzle out? Do you involve senior staff as well? Many times, the initiatives of juniors fail to take off due to lack of support from seniors who prioritize routine work over encouraging new ideas.

Many thanks for your inputs! If you don't mind, please tell us the name of the company you are associated with.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Regards,
Rajat

Dear Rajat,

We have social gatherings every Saturday, which serve as a common platform for everyone from the President to the peon. During these programs, any employee can participate and share their experiences of critical problems they have faced and how they have been resolved. Most of the time, Senior VPs share stories of branch-level problems solved by innovative engineers.

Therefore, this platform is utilized by everyone to share ideas and gain exposure to top management personnel and their perspectives.

Hope this helps. For any queries, please revert back.

Regards, Shailendra