To create an innovative workplace is by fostering a culture of innovation beginning and ending with an open mind about change. In order to promote an innovative workplace, no matter what the sector, there should be a continual exchange of ideas to result in the right balance for your company. Yes, you need creativity at the forefront of it all, but this isn’t something that can be forced. However, positioning your firm to achieve a successful approach to innovation takes a few key motivators, from flexibility in the work environment to hiring team members for a vision that aligns with yours. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to foster an innovative workplace.

Building a Creative Mindset

This all starts from the ground up with the people you decide to bring on board to take this journey with you. The wrong employees can prove to be toxic to your overall vision of creativity, change and flexibility in the work environment. It doesn’t mean you have to only hire people who agree with you all the time; it’s more than that. You want to encourage different perspectives by hiring people who are passionate about what they do, with the flexibility to spur on productivity without being hampered by rigid thoughts, ideas or scheduling parameters, says Forbes.

Here are some tips to achieving that sought-after creativity:

• Give employees incentives to care and thus share your company vision
• Involve your employees in the process, listening to their ideas and getting them pumped about a new project, company direction, etc.
• Brainstorm to help new ideas emerge
• Broaden perspectives and encourage change through practices like short-term job swaps
• Encourage trying new things, tweaking them to make them fit, discarding them or embracing them as a result
• Avoid penalizing those whose ideas don’t end up working out
• Reward and encourage the flow of ideas and new thoughts

Does Technology = Innovation?

There’s no denying technology is a big piece of the innovation puzzle. After all, how can you expect to compete in today’s global market if you’re not on board with the latest technology? Innovation often goes hand in hand with technology, but it doesn’t have to. In fact, you can be innovative at little or no cost. Innovation, at its very core, is something more than that. Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM, put it best in Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance: “

Create an Innovative Workplace

In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.” You can have all the strategy, marketing, technology and financial management skills in the world, and although all those things will help get you on the path to success, it may not necessarily keep you there. Bottom line is, you won’t get far if innovation, flexibility, and creativity aren’t ingrained in the company’s soul. This is how you create an innovative workplace.