The high pace of changes that the modern world experiences almost on a daily basis now demands companies to constantly seek innovation. However, building the right atmosphere for the workers to encourage their creative thinking is not a trivial task. Therefore, the chapter under review seeks to provide practical steps on how to encourage innovation among the company’s employees (Harvard Business School Press, 2009, Chapter 13). It is argued that companies should accept certain levels of risk, welcome novel ideas and methods of working, ensure free communications, encourage knowledge share, take potentially successful ideas under patronage, reward innovators and create physical surroundings that affect creativity.
First, it is suggested that managers should be able to embrace some risk as the latter is strongly related to the progress. Although, chances to lose are as possible as chances to win; there are methods that can help to minimize negative outcomes. They include diversification and cheap failure. Secondly, companies should inspire novel ideas. It is argued that the best way to be innovative is to make creativity a firm’s cultural norm. In order to achieve that, managers should be open to all opinions and encourage workers to think differently. Thirdly, it is necessary to ensure open communication between employees. That would help to combine particular professional expertise and generate new ideas.
Next, managers should motivate workers to gain and share knowledge as it may spark creativity. However, the experience should be shared not only within the company but also exchanged with other firms. For instance, workers can attend externally organized conferences and workshops. Besides that, potentially good ideas may sound crazy and unachievable first, so they require the manager’s support. It is argued that without that help, many great inventions would not appear at all. Moreover, innovations should be properly rewarded. Managers should consider both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of the workers and address them accordingly. Finally, it is suggested that companies should build proper working spaces that boost creativity. For instance, teams should be collocated for easier communication.
Reference
Harvard Business School Press. (2009). The innovator’s toolkit: 10 practical strategies to help you develop and implement innovation. Harvard Business Press.