You feel like many are holding back, hiding behind their job descriptions. You imagine what could happen if your entire workforce unleashed the creative animal within. So you wonder, How do I drive and reward innovation in my employees?
The answer is only three pictures and 252 words away—so stay with me.
Let’s start by pretending you and I had this conversation:
What do we learn from this exchange? We learn that innovation is not only about finding new ideas, but also fostering a culture that nurtures and rewards those who dare to challenge the status quo.
And they probably still would be if the founders’ moms had told those guys that their idea was dumb and dangerous. Why? Because people regularly abandon their ideas before even trying them if they’re made to feel silly by those with whom they share them. (By the way, I have no idea what the founders’ moms actually said about the idea; they could have been wildly supportive for all I know!
If your culture penalizes people for sharing unconventional ideas, they’ll never come up with good ones. (Hopefully I don’t need to explain what I mean by “penalized.” We’ve all been there. The eye rolls. The body language. The patronizing comments. The silent feedback.)
Remember when Thomas Edison said “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work”? He was implying he had been through at least 10,000 “bad” ideas before he found the one that put him at the top of America’s most well-known inventors.
.png?width=1100&height=300&name=Blog%20Quotes%20(2).png)
If you want to drive innovation among your employees, you’ll need to provide them with the freedom to explore, the resources to experiment, and the recognition that celebrates both success and failure.
If you want the longer, more amazing answer to this question, join us at Accelerate 2023—a conference designed to share lessons in accelerated growth with SMB leaders. Join us to discover how to design an employee experience that drives and rewards innovation.
Learn more here.
