Are Your Team Members Creating Innovative Ideas at Work?

I had a discussion with a senior manager who wanted to drive innovation within the organisation and specifically within a couple of teams.  He had great ideas and was preparing to have a meeting to discuss current issues and gain feedback from his team on these ideas.  While he is to be applauded for his commitment, this approach can greatly restrict an organisation’s prospects for innovation and creativity.

Where does innovation come from in your organisation?  The Board, the CEO, other key department managers, consultants?  How many ideas are coming from your staff?  The ones closest to the action.

People managers focused on continuous improvement know that the best ideas often come from the people who are closest to it.  They engage staff and seek ideas and opinions about what is working and what could be easier, safer, more effective, more efficient, etc.   And, employee surveys indicate that when managers do this, staffs feel valued and appreciated; they take increased pride in their efforts and ideas improving the organisation.

However, staffs who have not been engaged in this manner in the past can ‘push back’ when asked to contribute ideas for improvement.  “Isn’t that management’s role?” can sometimes be heard.  So, the manager may need to employ a range of communication and idea-generating approaches with their team to genuinely show them how to innovate and brainstorm potential new ideas.  And in some cases, the manager may need to modify staff understandings about their roles in continuous improvement (that these need to be active rather than passive) and that they will be reviewed on their participation

In his well-respected book, “Creativity,” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says that an effective creative process usually consists of five steps. These are:

1. Preparation – becoming immersed in problems and issues that are interesting and that arouse curiosity.
2. Incubation – allowing ideas to turn around in your mind without thinking about them consciously.
3. Insight – experiencing the moment when the problem makes sense, and you understand the fundamental issue.
4. Evaluation – taking time to make sure that the insight provides sufficient value to outweigh the various costs involved in implementation.
5. Elaboration – creating a plan to implement the solution, and following through.

Team members need to be regularly engaged by their manager (informally and formally) to generate their participation in the creation of new ideas and problem-solving.  And managers have a range of tools and approaches at their fingertips to run creative workshops and team meetings.  However, the old “suggestion box” on the wall often is the only attempt in organisations to seek staff ideas and these are seldom used; they are a passive approach to seeking input from staff.  And team creativity and innovation with an eye on continuous improvement is an active process that involves staff in a motivating way supporting operational improvements.  They must be part of it…not just sold new company initiatives by management.

How does your organisation gain ideas from staff?