Constantly coming up with new ideas and feeling the pressure to innovate can be stressful. It can feel like you’re failing whenever you don’t produce something groundbreaking. That’s why these innovation in the workplace examples and ideas are designed to jumpstart your creativity.
Given the diversity of backgrounds and job roles, this isn’t just a list of new ideas or examples of innovations. Instead, it’s a collection of 12 tools and strategies aimed at shifting your mindset, relieving pressure, and helping you enter a creative mode without the associated stress.
This post is all about innovation in the workplace examples.
INNOVATION IN THE WORKPLACE EXAMPLES:
1. Don’t sleep on the value of informal discussions
You’re not alone in seeking new innovative ideas. Other people on your team want the same goal as you. It’s difficult because you feel like you have to compete with each other for the most creative ideas. But, there’s no need to compete.
Each person brings something different that can make informal discussions and brainstorming sessions the place where you actually start to think in new ways. These are the moments when fresh ideas come to you. Talk to your coworkers. Learn about them.
Engage with the world in interesting ways that remind you how important collaboration and interaction are. Alter your approach to creative thinking. To work on building workplace innovation, you have to take some pressure off yourself.
You can encourage your brain to explore new neural pathways and think in new ways. So, when you’re aiming to feel that spark of creativity, get up and talk to someone about anything. The goal is to break out of old patterns and get comfortable with changing up the routine.
2. Actively challenge yourself to find new approaches that help you re-think creative thinking
Developing self-awareness may seem straightforward, but it can be challenging. It’s one thing to recognize that you need to find better ways of accessing an innovative approach. We assume that we can use the same tools over and over to come up with new ideas.
It doesn’t always work out that way, unfortunately. Sometimes, we need to challenge ourselves to notice the old, similar approaches we use to solve a problem. Then, we need to notice when those approaches no longer work.
It’s important to train yourself to recognize when you’re feeling stuck or stressed and to take a step back. Often, the last thing we want to do during a stressful event is to pause, especially at work when we’re focused on completing a task.
However, we have to remind ourselves that we are often most productive and innovative when we take a moment to acknowledge our frustration, stress, fear, or anger.
By recognizing how these emotions affect us, we can pause and take a break, acknowledging that we’re not operating at our best. This allows us to breathe, return, and approach the task from a fresh perspective.
3. Aim toward continuous improvement and reward the small breakthroughs
We should all aspire to improve ourselves and strive for that progress every day. We might not finish a new self-help book daily, get eight hours of sleep, or eat nutritiously all the time. However, we can take small steps toward self-improvement.
For instance, setting a goal to walk on the treadmill for twenty minutes in the morning is a start. On the first day, we might be too tired to get up, but even lying awake for a few minutes helps us get closer to getting out of bed the next day.
In the context of workplace innovation, we can remind ourselves that innovation and improvement are interconnected. It’s challenging to generate new ideas when we don’t feel like the best version of ourselves.
The pressure to make one big change makes it much harder to be the best version of ourselves. We achieve our happiest selves by loving ourselves and believing we are worthy of the effort required to become better.
Remember, you deserve the time it takes to make small, incremental changes, rather than feeling pressured to improve all at once.
4. Surround yourself with smart people and remember that you belong
Seek out different people who interest and teach you. Avoid those who are condescending or unkind because you deserve to be in a space where your presence and thoughts are appreciated. It’s important to find individuals who are both intelligent and interesting, like you.
These people will recognize your value and may understand your experiences, especially if your ideas haven’t been appreciated elsewhere.
If you feel belittled when you share your best ideas, then it’s okay to start looking for new environments where you may feel like a peer among other intelligent people. Remember, intelligence without kindness is meaningless.
Define “smart” in a way that is effective and meaningful to you while also aiming to learn from the “smart” people you choose to surround yourself with.
You might choose people from your field or entirely different ones. Whoever they are, let them be individuals who leave you feeling inspired and full of exciting ideas after meaningful conversations.
5. Think of ways you can play a role in improving customer experience
The idea of customer experience can be completely different based on context. For some companies, the customer is essentially nonexistent in several different departments because there’s a lack of overlap.
The term “customer” can often feel corporate and impersonal anyway, which makes it a terrible word to use when discussing innovation in the context of mental health.
Corporations rarely value employee mental health and use buzzwords to convey complex ideas as simply and widely as possible. At Knockoff Therapy, we aim to broaden this definition and show how you play a role in it.
We want to do this regardless of how well you can access every department in an entire organization. Everyone has customers because our society requires us to exchange goods or services for payment. Whether you’re a cashier, a teacher, or work in IT, you have customers.
Your job might involve frequent interactions with people or very few. In either case, you can choose to improve someone’s day with kindness, which at its core is the idea of improving customer experience.
Sometimes, you might play a significant role in someone’s customer experience. But if your only role is to be kind, that’s a win.
6. Change your mindset from one huge difference to lots of small incremental differences
When you start focusing on small changes over time instead of big differences all at once, your mindset shifts. Incremental change also brings less pressure, which is always a plus.
When aiming for the next big change that everyone needs right now, it’s easy to get stuck in a “waiting” mindset that leaves you saying “not today” every day. In other words, if you wait for a huge innovation, you’re just waiting.
You never know when you’ll come up with an idea that meets your standards, and you’ll always be saying that today isn’t the day for innovation. The longer you sit in this mindset, the more you’ll degrade yourself and increase the pressure you feel.
Instead, by focusing on small changes, you can empower yourself to find value in your ideas, no matter their size. This approach will ultimately lead to significant changes much faster than waiting for a big breakthrough.
7. You are not the only one responsible for creating a culture of innovation
Innovation culture needs to be driven from the top or have widespread support. If you struggle with new ideas, it may reflect the company culture’s lack of emphasis on innovation. It may have nothing to do with your abilities to innovate or think creatively.
Without leadership or innovative companies that encourage risk-taking and learning from failure, it’s natural to feel hesitant about trying new things. You don’t have the open space to make mistakes as part of the process of creating.
In such a work environment, fear of failure can stifle creativity, leading employees to stick to safe, familiar methods.
Focus on collaborating with like-minded colleagues to foster creativity within your control. Remember, building an innovative culture requires collective effort and leadership buy-in, so avoid pressuring yourself into being completely responsible for it.
8. Get comfortable with challenging the status quo
The familiar feels comfortable. The biggest obstacle to change is the desire to stay with what you know, even if it doesn’t bring you happiness. Often, people remain unhappy because the certainty of their unhappiness is more comforting than the potential for greater happiness.
The status quo represents this comfort. You might avoid disrupting things, or perhaps you don’t have the privilege to consider doing so.
However, if you’re interested in innovation, you must be ready to question everything in the name of innovation strategy and challenge the status quo in pursuit of innovative solutions.
9. Look for reasons to be intrinsically motivated rather than seeking public recognition
You might come across advice like, “Find your intrinsic motivation!” or “Intrinsic motivation is the key to success, so make sure you love your job!” in a self-help book. There’s nothing wrong with the self-help genre or with this take on motivation.
However, it can be demoralizing to people who are just trying to get through the day at their job. Authors often put in the effort to research and present the best ways to understand themselves and the world, which can be invaluable.
If this isn’t the case, the author might simply be reiterating what you already know or, worse, speaking from a place of privilege and oversimplifying complex problems. While it’s true that intrinsic motivation is essential for enjoying your work, it’s not always attainable.
Finding intrinsic value in what you do is a privilege. Keep this in mind as you seek ways to innovate and consider relieving some of the pressure you may feel.
10. Work towards an innovative workplace through employee engagement
Whether you’re a supervisor or not, there are lots of ways to encourage your coworkers to engage with new perspectives if you create the right environment with the right tools.
You’ll likely learn from every person you work with if given the chance and engaging with other staff members is a great way to learn. So, let them know you value their input and want to collaborate more often.
Employee innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum, so remember to engage in open communication both about work and not about work.
If you are a supervisor, create an environment that shows your employees how much you value them. This involves requesting input from others and responding directly to their ideas to demonstrate that you listened when they spoke.
11. Respect the value of different perspectives of everyone at your company, including your own
You bring something new and interesting to almost every conversation you enter. Sometimes, it’s important to avoid centering the conversation on yourself if others are struggling to be heard. Other times, people may ignore you or imply that you have nothing to add.
Regardless, remember that you always have something valuable to contribute as does everyone else sitting at the “table.” When someone tries to communicate that your ideas are less valuable, remind yourself that your unique perspective is important.
In the right situations, both you and your contributions will be valuable. Notice when people underestimate you so that you know where your energy is appreciated and where it’s wasted.
12. Lean on your team members and encourage them to lean on you
Innovation does not have to equal competition. Enlist help from your teammates and collaborate with those you work with. Remember that you are stronger together than apart, and you should take advantage of the help they can provide.
Each person brings interesting, new perspectives that, when combined, create an innovation process unlike any other.
Avoid the individualistic pitfall of competing with the very people who can help you generate new ideas and break out of your innovative rut. By helping each other come up with new ideas, everyone benefits and becomes a more innovative employee.
