The place where we work usually ends up being the place where we spend a good chunk of our time. Each employee that makes up a company is an integral part of influencing its daily dynamics.
But sometimes it can be hard to find motivation. The trick to staying inspired in the workplace comes down to a lot more than just catering in lunch once a month.
Fostering a culture of growth and innovation is a continuous journey. So, what does it take to inspire workplace innovation? Let’s find out.
See Related: How To Encourage Innovation In The Workplace With Corporate Entertainment
How Can I Effectively Encourage Workplace Innovation?
Inspiration and innovation go hand-in-hand. There are many ways to foster a culture of creative and free thinking that can lead to the development of new ideas, and thus, innovative solutions.
#1. Explore The Power Of Corporate Entertainment!
Sometimes your employees just need a chance to unwind and laugh. It’s hard to think of new and creative ideas when stress is seemingly piling up without a proper break.
Hosting an entertaining corporate event is a great way to allow your employees to finally relax.
Giving them the break they deserve is an effective way to calm down any stressors while boosting employee engagement. It can reset their minds and get them back on track!
On top of that, helping companies unwind is a great way to help build corporate relationships. Communicating during working hours has its limitations, but enjoying an event outside of work can really boost workplace relations.
Even if it’s just setting time aside once per month for a local team dinner, engaging in corporate events and entertainment can bring about great benefits.
Unique ideas and innovation come around when employees feel comfortable and happy. Going for an entertaining corporate event is a great way to bring about innovative workplaces and design thinking from within.
#2. Enjoy The Amazing Benefits Of A Corporate Event
A corporate event is an amazing way of showing your employees that you care about their overall well-being and happiness. As a business owner, going for the route of a corporate event is a great way to engage with your team outside of work.
Maybe you’ve decided on a smaller gathering, like a simple dinner or casual kickback. But really treating your employees should be done with true entertainment. One way to do this is with a corporate comedian!
Laughter is a great stress reliever and can even boost creativity for the next innovative idea to come. When employees feel open and engaged, it leads to heightened levels of motivation and inspiration.
It’s no joke that laughter is the best way to bring people together!
When we are able to relax and truly enjoy our time, it can help in developing bonds and growing friendships.
Maybe you’ve never heard of a corporate comedian before – essentially if it’s a clean standup comedian.
You can skip the rowdy (and definitely not workplace-friendly) comedy club. By opting for our corporate comedian, you can get a fully customized act tailored to your particular company!
We’ll skip the lewd and dividing topics and go straight to subjects that will help everyone feel connected. Booking a corporate comedian is a truly successful way to engage with your team and grow inspiration and innovation in the workplace.
#3. Give Employees The Freedom To Explore Innovation
It’s common for employees to want an outlet to let loose their creativity and solve problems the business may be facing. Naturally, the innovative workplace is a perfect place for this.
Encouraging employees to think outside the box and explore new ideas is the first step to giving them the motivation to be innovative.
A crucial element of workplace innovation is making sure that employees feel their input, opinions, and creativity are heard and appreciated. Additionally, companies must provide the initial opportunity for employees to share their creativity.
Without a provided opportunity to support innovation, it can be difficult for employees to take on that initiative within the organization independently.
But business leaders can encourage innovative ideas in a couple of ways. A simple way is by using suggestion boxes where employees can anonymously or otherwise share their problem-solving ideas.
There are other ways as well, such as
- Group meetings or “think tanks”
- Employee retreats
- Designated times or places for sharing new ideas
Giving employees a break from their perhaps mundane daily tasks can reinvigorate their vision and foster creativity. Even just allocating a specific time of the day for independent work and innovation, for example, is a fantastic way to stimulate productivity and problem-solving processes.
#4. Offer Growth And Training Programs
Many times, employees want the opportunity to grow and further their own education, creativity, and skill set. However, it can be hard to try to find the right services to learn from on their own.
Providing employees with the tools they need to grow their own knowledge and skills is an excellent way to promote individual growth.
Offering employees access to additional training programs is a direct way to provide them with the educational services that they may be looking for to explore their creative side while contributing to the success of their company.
Employees with access to company-provided training programs can gain a vast amount of knowledge and experience. It’s as simple as giving your employees the resources to explore innovation when they already have the motivation and creativity to stay ahead.
#5. Make Employee Satisfaction A Top Priority
Dissatisfaction in the workplace is a breeding ground for negativity and even corporate resentment. If your employees aren’t happy with their working environment, it can be very hard to build an encouraging and healthy innovative culture.
Prioritizing employee satisfaction is the number one way to nurture a respectful and happy workplace.
Take Google, for example. Google is widely recognized as a titan among companies, creating an amazing corporate culture with an innovative approach and a competitive advantage. At any employee level, its workplace environment is unparalleled in terms of excellence and innovation.
This is in part because Google provides certain employee perks that make working there enjoyable. But the real goldmine is their emphasis on creative freedom, trustworthy employee-employer relationships, and true flexibility.
Adopting similar policies that place high importance on employee satisfaction, creativity, and innovation is a great way to encourage innovation in the workplace. It’s not a secret that people perform better when they’re happy!
Bonus: What Is A Corporate Magician And How Can They Enhance Your Event?
#6. Toss The Idea Of A Strict Hierarchy
Long gone are the days of bureaucratic red tape lining company policies.
Nowadays, adopting a flat corporate structure is what is truly ideal.
Many times, when companies have too many policies, rules, and procedures in their business models, it can really put a damper on the creativity and innovation process of their employees.
Imagine this – your employees take their time and effort to develop a new idea into something that can truly benefit the company. But after jumping through endless hoops and playing “politics”, these ideas are never able to even be fully implemented.
Dealing with difficult internal processes like this not only demoralizes employees but also serves to stifle even the potential of new ways and processes.
After all, who wants to bring about change and innovation in a workplace that doesn’t even support the notion of it?
It’s important to structure your company to welcome creativity and new ideas.
Make sure the fundamental aspects of your workplace encourage innovative thinking, rather than suppress it!
#7. Adopt A Culture Of Risk And Acceptance Of Failure
Oftentimes, innovation in business can be risky. It involves testing new ideas and theories that have the potential to fail.
But innovation inherently carries with it the risk of failure. Yes, this can be scary.
But as Paulo Coelho wrote in The Alchemist, “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
Welcoming failure along with innovation in turn welcomes the introduction of fresh new ideas to the industry. Recognize that trying something new and taking a risk with creativity has the potential to not work out how you expect it to.
Make it the norm to experiment with new ideas and innovation and not be demoralized or discouraged by its possible failure. No great innovation, business, or company was ever created without some sort of failure in the beginning.
To be truly innovative, you need to welcome the possibility of failure.
Embracing the risk of experimentation is sometimes all you need to inspire your employees!
#8. Recognize And Reward Creative Thinking And Innovation
Don’t underestimate the power of rewarding employees who go above and beyond.
Even if it’s for someone who may shy away from the spotlight, it still can feel good when someone acknowledges their creativity and hard work.
Giving employees proper recognition shows them that you appreciate their efforts.
This is a prime way to inspire your employees to think outside the box and exceed workplace expectations. You can go for something like a reward system for internal friendly competition or maybe just a simple shoutout to acknowledge a job well done.
No matter what option you may choose, just make sure you give your employees the recognition they deserve.
If employees feel like their ideas and contributions are truly valued, they will likely want to share more. Whether or not their ideas are eventually implemented doesn’t really matter here. What matters is that employees not only feel valued but their ideas are actually valued as well.
Great ideas can come from anyone.
Whether it’s from a top executive or a new hire lower in the company, any great idea has the potential to benefit a business.
Fostering this welcoming and appreciative environment is one way to truly inspire innovation and creative thinking throughout the organization.
#9. Encourage A Healthy Work-Life Balance
Employee burnout is a real thing.
Sure, there are people who just want to live and breathe their work. But at the end of the day, we’re all humans. It’s impossible to work and work like a machine without eventually cracking under the pressure.
Having a healthy work-life balance is the same thing as eating a well-rounded diet.
You can’t live a healthy life eating only one kind of food – you need variety! It’s the same thing with work.
You can’t live a healthy life only focusing on work. You also need enough time for sleeping, spending time with family and friends, and engaging in personal hobbies or activities. Of course, you can be passionate about working at your job, but that’s not all you need to focus on!
Cultivating a good work-life balance is essential not only for our basic health and happiness but also for growing our minds.
When we are able to explore different parts of our lives, it inspires new ideas and expands our worldviews.
Giving our minds the fuel to think and grow is a strong foundation for true workplace innovation.
Keep Reading: 7 Trust-Building Benefits That Corporate Magic Can Offer Your Workplace
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Adam Christing is a professional comedy magician, virtual MC, and the founder of CleanComedians.com. He is a member of the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood and a popular corporate entertainer, magician, and virtual speaker.