Talk about creating “culture of innovation” is common among corporate leaders. But many act as though innovative culture is brought to a company by some form of organizational fairy. Many are unaware of the power they have to change their company’s culture and instead imitate fads and trends alone. But looking like your company has innovative culture and actually having it are completely different.

True corporate culture influences the way employees act and think. Innovation culture determines how much innovation is supported by a company’s management and its employees. Innovative culture is the framework for all innovative activity within an organization. Without positive innovative culture, innovation can be hindered – even if a company has the best of the best in terms of ideas and innovation teams.

To enhance a company’s culture of innovation, implement these tactics and be diligent about managing these changes. The best news is, these are relatively easy to implement with little hurdles and drastic positive effect on your company’s innovation culture.

Communication

An innovation strategy sets the framework and direction conditions. Goals and expectations should be made clear to all employees, therefore the best first step to creating a culture of innovation is clear communication of the innovation strategy across all levels.

Workshops and Crash Courses

While communication raises awareness, it is still one sided. It is also important to talk to employees about their involvement and set them up for success. Offer cascaded innovation workshops across all functions and through all hierarchy levels. Define what innovation means for your employees, what roles they play and what they can contribute to the success of your company’s innovation.

Crash courses are great for helping employees to understand more about innovation and what it means for the company. With crash courses, you can share content and scope pertinent to each type of employee. The goal with crash courses is to reach the widest possible audience. In a crash course, be sure to include information such as:

  • Innovation definition
  • How to generate ideas
  • Where to submit ideas and how
  • What happens during the innovation idea
  • What an employee can contribute
  • Techniques for creativity

Innovation Days

Host annual innovation days to focus and activate attention on innovation topics. Consider having open innovation days, hackathons and idea workshops and/or awards ceremonies for innovation to foster a more innovative culture in your company. Innovative days can take place in person or online.

Creativity Workshops

Employees should be directly involved in the innovation process and a great way to make this happen is to host creativity workshops. Here all teams work together across all functions to develop new ideas and solutions. These workshops can be an exciting way to create ideas and inspire everyone within the company.

Innovation Awards

Whether you want to award the best innovative teams, ideas or projects, innovation awards have a strong impact. Public recognition received by the company encourages employees and gains attention. This is a great way to mobilize other employees too, getting even more excited about innovation, thus creating a stronger culture of innovation.