What is innovation in a workplace and how do we begin to build a “culture” around it?

Many people have been discussing this in a workplace setting, but how do we go about fostering it in our daily lives? Innovation is the key to success in any business, and building a culture of innovation within a workplace can be a challenging but rewarding endeavour. Encouraging employees to think outside the box and come up with new ideas can lead to breakthroughs that can set a company apart from its competitors.

Cultivate a collaborative space
Innovation should be a core value of your company culture. This message should be communicated consistently and employees are encouraged to share their ideas and experiment. This can be achieved through team brainstorming sessions, hackathons, and regular check-ins to identify areas for improvement. Brainstorming sessions and collaborative projects can bring together employees from different departments with different skill sets, leading to fresh ideas and new perspectives.

Thrive in a dynamic workplace
Innovation requires taking risks, and it’s important to create an environment where employees feel comfortable doing so. Necessary resources should be provided and support to test and implement new ideas. This can involve allowing time for experimentation, allocating budgets for innovation projects, and providing training to develop new skills. Employees who feel supported and empowered are more likely to take risks and come up with innovative ideas. Make sure everyone in the workplace feels valued and heard.

Create possibilities in diverse environments
Innovation thrives in diverse environments where people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and skill sets can collaborate. Encourage cross-functional teams to work together on projects and provide opportunities for employees to interact with colleagues from different departments.

Acknowledge our successes and failures
Not every idea will be a winner, and that’s okay. Embracing failure as a learning opportunity can encourage employees to learn from their mistakes. Recognizing both successful and failed attempts at innovation is important in creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Leaders should publicly acknowledge and celebrate employees’ efforts to innovate, even if the end result is not successful.

Provide avenues for feedback
Creating a feedback loop where employees can share their thoughts and ideas about the innovation process is crucial. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, or regular check-ins with managers. This session can help identify areas for improvement and ensure that the innovation process is continuously evolving.

To learn more about what innovation means to our colleagues and how they cultivate innovation in their organizations, we went around the office. Here’s what they have to share with us:

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“Innovation to me means to develop the most convenient way of doing something without compromising the overall desired outcome. Pre-empt potential issues at every step along the way, and keep frowning upon manual processes even if there are no immediate efficient solutions. Fix what is broken, do not fix what is not.”

– Fabian, Finance Executive, Singapore

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“Innovation is the ability to look into places where others don’t. It may come in the form of new ideas, the ability to apply new methods to a current process or adding value to a product or service. First and foremost, we have to initiate an environment that encourages creative thinking and action in the workplace. This way we can have the employees to share their knowledge, experience, skills, suggestions and recommendations across the team. Having employees with a different set of ideas or approach to problem-solving will easily generate an innovative approach.”

– Kaneshwaren, Operations Manager, Malaysia

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“Continuous innovation can help employees improve their work experience, feel that every day’s work is new, improve work effectiveness, and make employees more focused and insightful about their current work. Actively change the mode of thinking, from a work state of no thinking, single perspective, immutable, and step-by-step to actively pay attention to subtle changes in work, conduct multi-perspective observations, and dynamically examine problems.”

– Limy, Client Support Executive, China

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Here at Janio, we encourage others to unleash their hidden talents by working cross-functionally across the business. Fostering innovation in the workplace requires a commitment to creating a culture of experimentation, risk-taking, collaboration, and continuous improvement. By following these steps, companies can unlock the creativity and potential of their employees to drive growth and stay ahead in today’s fast-changing business landscape. Innovation doesn’t happen overnight, but by fostering a culture like that can set itself up for long-term success.

Interested in joining us? Check out our open positions here or share your CV at HR@janio.asia.

Stay tuned for more highlights and keep up with our people on our Janio Asia social media pages on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

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