eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
Strategy Two
Encourage creativity and out-of-the-box thinking within your organisation.
Create platforms for idea generation and collaboration, where employees feel empowered to propose new solutions and challenge the status quo.
By fostering innovation, you can proactively address emerging challenges and capitalise on new opportunities.
Fostering a culture of innovation is essential for organisations seeking to stay competitive and adapt to a rapidly changing business landscape.
By encouraging creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, companies can unlock the full potential of their employees and generate innovative ideas. Here’s a further expansion of this point along with some case studies:
Encouraging creativity
Organisations should create an environment that encourages and rewards creativity. This involves valuing diverse perspectives, promoting open communication and providing opportunities for employees to explore new ideas.
Google is known for its “20 percent time” policy, where employees are encouraged to spend 20 percent of their work time on projects that interest them personally. This approach has led to the development of products like Gmail and Google News.
Creating platforms for idea generation and collaboration:
Companies should establish platforms, such as brainstorming sessions, innovation challenges, or internal social networks, to facilitate idea generation and collaboration.
These platforms provide employees with a space to share and refine their ideas collectively.
One notable example is 3M’s “15 percent rule,” which allows employees to dedicate 15 percent of their time to pursue innovative projects. This policy has resulted in numerous successful products, including Post-it Notes.
Empowering employees to challenge the status quo
Organisations should cultivate a culture where employees feel empowered to challenge existing processes, suggest improvements and take calculated risks. Atlassian, a software company, encourages a “ShipIt Day” where employees can work on any project of their choice for 24 hours. This practice not only promotes innovation but also allows employees to challenge conventional thinking.
Proactively addressing emerging challenges
An innovative culture enables organisations to proactively address emerging challenges. By encouraging employees to think creatively and explore new solutions, companies can find novel ways to overcome obstacles.
For instance, IBM transformed from a hardware-focused company to a provider of cloud computing and artificial intelligence solutions by fostering a culture of innovation and adapting to changing market dynamics.
Capitalising on new opportunities
An organisation that fosters innovation can identify and capitalise on new opportunities before competitors do. Apple is renowned for its innovative products like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
By consistently pushing the boundaries of technology and design, Apple has been able to create new markets and maintain a competitive advantage.
Embracing failure as a learning opportunity:
In an innovative culture, failure is seen as a learning opportunity rather than a setback. Organisations should encourage employees to take risks and learn from failures.
For example, SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has experienced several rocket launch failures. However, instead of being discouraged, they learned from each failure and made significant advancements in reusable rocket technology.
Fostering a culture of innovation involves encouraging creativity, providing platforms for idea generation and collaboration, empowering employees to challenge the status quo, proactively addressing challenges, and capitalising on new opportunities.
Companies that embrace innovation can drive growth, stay ahead of the competition, and adapt to changing market demands.
We grew up being told that “failure is not an option”. In school, teachers are reminding students that failure is not an option. During our days if you failed an assignment you would receiving physical punishment.
From school, you are consistently taught not to fail, how will you learn new things if you do not fail. How will you know what doesn’t work, if you do not fail?
Many still repeat this statement to the teams. Truth be told, when you want to make progress in your business, you need to make failure an option.
Business is constantly under pressure to innovate and develop new products. In the process of trying to develop these, they experience failures. That is life. It is not every time that you are going to experience success.
You are going to make mistakes, you are going to be disappointed. Failure has to be an option.
Do not fear failure, fear inaction
As a business leader, you need to constantly encourage this amongst your team. Encourage, your members to take action. Failure is okay, not trying is not. When you try to do something, you are going to fail. And that’s good.
If you fear failure, you will never try anything new. So, it has to be an option. Fail more. Fail many times.
Don’t lose heart when you fail. On your path to success, failure is inevitable. Not only do you have to expect it, you have to embrace it as well. If you reject failure you reject success. It is the door that ushers in success.
There are some few thoughts that I want you to reflect on;
Fear failure, fear success
Failure is a priceless asset
Failure, is not an enemy, but fear is
Lessons from failure are priceless if you choose to learn.
To be continued . . .
Arthur Marara
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote speaker, corporate and personal branding speaker commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, strategy and personal and professional development. Arthur is the author of “Toys for Adults” a thought provoking book on entrepreneurship, and “No one is Coming” a book that seeks to equip leaders to take charge. Send your feedback to [email protected] or Visit his website www.arthurmarara.com or contact him on WhatsApp: +263780055152 or call +263772467255.
