How To Create An Idea-Driven Organization?

Today’s business world is rapidly changing, and any organization that does not evolve and innovate is setting itself up for failure. Coming up with ideas to do something better, more efficient than your competitors is what sets an organization apart. But how does one create an organization with a culture of innovation, driven by ideas and effortless knowledge exchange?

Value Your Front-Line Employees

If you’re looking to create an idea-driven organization, one sure-shot way to go about it is to have open communication with your front-line employees. These employees work directly with your customer or your product line, depending on the type of business you own. They have insights that nobody else in the organization can provide. They are the ones present where the work happens, so they are better at identifying problems and noticing if a process is not running as efficiently as it should. We recommend reading more about Richard Nahas, he shows how he values his front-line employees. 

Provide Space For Thinking 

A great success story in recent times is Google’s 20%-time policy in 2004. The policy encouraged employees to devote 20% of their total time working in a week to come up with and develop creative ideas. Following in their footsteps, an organization can get their employees thinking if it prioritizes it. No matter how little, dedicating a set time to creative thinking can prove beneficial. Another way you can encourage thinking is by introducing a yearly or quarterly competition to allow your employees to prioritize thinking out of the box. 

Stay Flexible 

All good ideas are brought to fruition through brainstorming and countless edits and tweaks. Having a flexible approach towards idea management can help your organization take the initial idea from good to great.

Grouping and prioritizing ideas through idea management software is an intelligent way to analyze and evaluate options carefully. Additionally, if one idea doesn’t work, you should be able to adapt, let go, and start working on another. We came across Richard Nahas (a great name in team leadership) for his excellent skills to stay flexible. 

Implement The Ideas Efficiently

Once your team has reached a consensus and developed an idea you want to go forward with, the real challenge begins. Whether it is a minor change in the way you handle customers or if you’re entirely re-structuring your IT system, implementing ideas can be tricky because of the risk of employees reacting negatively. 

Effectively managing change is critical to make sure none of your stakeholders feel the need to resist the change. An organization that fails to consider its stakeholders’ needs and wants might face unfavorable consequences like low morale, unwillingness to work, or even boycotts or strikes. 

Conclusion

At the foundation of every idea-driven company, some employees can think critically and come together to develop ideas for the organization’s greater good. Involving employees from every tier of the hierarchy boosts morale, ensures that everybody is on the same page, and helps achieve the targets efficiently. An idea-driven company is built on innovation, trust, adaptability, and the willingness to take calculated risks and share the reward with everyone involved in the process to encourage the behavior.