What is a culture of innovation?

A culture of innovation is defined by more than out-of-the-box thinking. To be truly innovative, it should be adaptive to change, unafraid of friction or difficult conversations, nurturing of creativity and forward-thinking and adept at responsible risk-taking. 

Take the following example:

An employee approaches their manager to discuss what went wrong with their project. Rather than an “I told you so” or a “Just do better next time,” the manager encourages the team member to share these discoveries with the rest of the team.

During the next meeting, team members take turns celebrating the successes — and assessing the challenges— for everyone involved. The conversation is collaborative, curious and focused on identifying areas of improvement and areas where the group can take future calculated risks.

Building a culture of innovation in the workplace is, therefore, an ongoing commitment that requires mindset shifts, collaboration, trust and some healthy trial and error. The gains of innovation will be more than worthwhile, however, as a culture of innovation in the workplace means unlocking new opportunities for growth and success.

Why should you shift to a culture of innovation?

It’s easy for a company to rely on operating methods that follow expected norms and routines. But businesses might consider whether these norms and routines have led to a fixed mindset and a complacency toward — or fear of — change.

To have a place in rapidly evolving marketplaces, companies might consider being open to pushing boundaries and welcoming change as an opportunity for growth.

Leadership and managerial styles are two key factors that impact workplace culture and mindset, so start by assessing how those in leadership roles approach innovation. Encourage managers and team leaders to reflect on whether they encourage or even welcome curiosity, boundary-pushing and challenging of the status quo from their team members.

You might consider having leaders observe where they see innovative tendencies in their teams and where they see gaps and create goals to encourage those tendencies and fill those gaps. Ask them to identify the attitudes, beliefs and values they think will best support innovative thinking on their teams.

Implementing a true mindset shift will take time, so be patient and recognize smaller, positive shifts along the way.

How can you nurture employee creativity and exploration?

Creativity and freedom to explore are two essential aspects of innovation. To foster a culture of innovation in your workplace, you might look for ways to encourage creative thinking in your teams.

When employees are given the trust and freedom to explore and experiment with different approaches, they may feel empowered to uncover new solutions to old problems. Creative approaches may also lead to employees anticipating potential problems and therefore implementing best practices to avoid them.

Creative environments leverage different skills and learning styles and embrace employee feedback as a tool to facilitate positive growth.

To nurture employee exploration and establish a creative work environment:

• Learn what inspires your employees.
• Encourage employees to express themselves.
• Embrace failure by responding positively.
• Celebrate individual and team successes.
• Facilitate open dialogues between colleagues.
• Provide opportunities for learning and growth.
• Seek employee input.
• Check-in and stay up to date regarding employee needs.

For employees to feel supported in their creativity, you might also consider whether their environment offers a sense of psychological safety and how it deals with failure.

6 strategies for creating a culture of innovation 

1. Feeling safe enough to take risks — and to fail

A company cannot be truly innovative if it doesn’t take risks. To encourage healthy risk-taking in employees, managers might examine how their work environment responds to failure and whether employees feel safe to push boundaries.

A work environment that is psychologically safe is one where employees feel comfortable speaking up to share new ideas or question the status quo without the fear of being punished or ostracized.

A psychologically safe work environment also doesn’t condemn failure but rather uses it to facilitate creative problem-solving and growth — key attributes of innovation. And when a workplace removes the fear of failure and replaces that fear with openness and collaboration, employees may feel more empowered to take calculated risks.

These calculated risks are strong indicators of an innovative culture. 

2. Facilitate collaboration to promote innovation

The best collaboration combines diverse skill sets, backgrounds and experiences to approach ideas from different angles. Benefits of collaboration include enhanced creativity, new insights and constructive, curious dialogues. 

Coupled with a strong sense of psychological safety at work, collaboration may also lead to better accountability and individuals taking ownership of their ideas, which in turn may lead to better engagement and pride in what they do.

To promote collaboration and innovation:

• Encourage open communication and idea-sharing.
• Build a psychologically safe environment.
• Lead by example.
• Provide training, technology and other resources that support collaboration.
• Understand and embrace multigenerational communication styles.

3. Embrace diversity and inclusion

True diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) is not about ticking boxes on a corporate checklist. It’s about creating strong, inclusive workplaces through valuing, respecting and engaging all individuals regardless of background.

This mindset pushes past policies and programs and becomes a core part of a company’s culture. It may also positively contribute to a company’s overall innovation. For starters, workplaces that are truly inclusive accept different viewpoints and backgrounds and promote collaboration from all team members, just like those that are innovative.

In addition to inclusive workplaces and innovative workplaces often sharing similar mindsets, the different perspectives present in a diverse workplace may stimulate alternative thinking and creativity, which drive innovation. 

4. Encourage adaptability and agility during times of change

Innovation thrives when it is driven by adaptable individuals who maintain an agile mindset in the face of change.

Individuals and teams that demonstrate an agile mindset are flexible and collaborative, seek to understand others and practice empathy and respect. In turn, this can lead to a workplace that promotes shared knowledge, higher quality of work and creative problem-solving.

This may benefit clients as well, as team members who feel supported to adapt to changing scenarios may also feel more empowered to solve potential issues in creative yet effective ways.

Even the best plans can fall through due to a failure to adapt, so you might consider whether your organization provides your teams with the necessary resources, upskilling opportunities and support from leadership to promote adaptive thinking.

5. Cultivate innovation through continuous learning

Organizations that value continuous learning are often highly successful and innovative. One way an organization might facilitate continuous learning is to provide its employees with opportunities for professional development.

In fact, providing learning opportunities and supporting employee development may be the key to talent retention as it communicates to employees that the company believes in and supports their abilities.

But just as important as offering upskilling and development opportunities is fostering a mindset of continuous learning on your teams. This means rather than viewing knowledge as simply a commodity, your work culture embraces intelligence as endless and team members remain adaptable and open to learning new skills. 

To encourage a learning mindset, try:

• Creating regular opportunities for training and development
• Encouraging knowledge sharing and collaboration (even mentorship) between employees
• Supporting a culture that promotes experimentation and doesn’t condemn failure
• Having those in leadership roles demonstrate a commitment to learning.

6. Empower leadership to guide innovation

Building a culture of innovation would be difficult without the help of those in leadership roles. An organization’s leadership has a high impact on workplace culture. 

To promote a culture of innovation, start at the top. Leadership qualities that may help facilitate innovation include open-mindedness, empathy, vision, communication and accountability, so consider choosing leaders that display these skills.

Communicate with leaders in your organization about company goals for creating an innovative workplace and clearly outline what they can do to contribute. Then, set them free to implement those practices in the ways they best see fit for their teams.

Conclusion

To maximize an organization’s potential for growth, consider implementing these important aspects of innovation.

Start by shifting mindsets and nurturing a psychologically safe environment where employees feel empowered to take risks and creatively collaborate. Embrace inclusion and diversity to leverage different perspectives and encourage employees to grow by offering opportunities for exploration and development.

Download our step-by-step guide for encouraging healthy risk-taking. We’ll walk you through how to encourage your team members to take risks, how you can support them by cultivating a safe work environment, offering resources and learning opportunities and acknowledging their efforts.