A Creative Spark: Encouraging New Ideas in the Workplace

Creativity. Writing ability. Communications expertise. Time management and organization. These are all indispensable skills of PR industry professionals. But there’s another skill that is emerging as essential: the ability to innovate.

Innovation, at the basic level, is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a new idea, device or method,” and “the act or process of introducing new ideas, devices or methods.”

For PR and communications strategists in a profession that is moving at lightning-fast speed, the essence of innovation is finding and embracing new ways of thinking and doing things. Innovation allows you to deliver new benefits, value and results to clients. Without it, you run the risk of being one step behind.

But how do you innovate and stay one step ahead by using new ideas and methods? You can encourage innovation by having a culture that fosters it. 

Here are six ways to inspire innovation within your organization’s walls:

1. Embrace a strengths-based culture.

A good first step to encourage innovation is by adopting a strengths-based leadership approach, one that leverages and amplifies an individual’s strengths as opposed to focusing on where they are falling short. 

A strengths-based approach is a philosophy based on the belief that each person is born with unique strengths and talents. The notion is that when individuals can accomplish work in alignment with their talents, they are at their best, feel content and can better collaborate — and innovate — with co-workers. 

Our agency uses CliftonStrengths by Gallup as a starting point. When new members join our agency, we ask them to share their results with the rest of the team and point out any strengths they may share with others. 

This reinforces our strengths-based culture, opens avenues of communication and establishes a safe place to share ideas. Putting strengths front and center is also a reminder to our team of the unique value they bring and can inspire them to bring new ideas and ways of thinking forward.

2. Encourage open dialogue in a supportive environment.

Our culture has always fostered an environment of open communication and we prioritize compassion in the workplace — and hire leaders with the same passion. Team members want to be able to share ideas and suggest changes in a safe space and know they won’t be harshly critiqued.

3. Prioritize a learning mindset.

A commitment to ongoing learning and skills development is critical to innovation. Our agency has encouraged and prioritized personal development by offering individual and group opportunities to learn and grow. We’ve done this through in-person or virtual development opportunities such as workshops, personalized one-on-one mentoring, group webinars and trainings as well as in-the-moment sharing of thought-leadership articles, podcasts, websites and books. 

When you expand your and your teams’ skill set by providing access to the tools they need and push them toward new ways of thinking, everyone benefits and your company and clients are positioned for growth.

It’s worth noting that without the right planning, it can be too easy for learning to take a back seat to workload. To avoid this, be sure to incorporate ongoing learning opportunities into your standard operating culture. 

4. Embrace collaboration. 

It’s hard to innovate alone. Foster an environment that allows for frequent idea-sharing. This requires going beyond the traditional brainstorm sessions; it’s a mindset that includes frequent check-ins to bounce ideas off one another. This has, admittedly, been tougher during the pandemic. 

While digital tools and technology have in many ways made the ability for our team to collaborate in real time easier, it’s made it tougher to engage in impromptu idea-sharing. We’ve tried to remedy this by setting aside more time for 1:1 touch-base calls and pulling other members of our team in to lend a hand in our ideation sessions.

5. Flatten your org chart.

We’re proud to have a flat agency that eliminates the traditional and hierarchical roles within a company. We even went so far as to eliminate job titles. We believe that our flat organization empowers our team members to make decisions on their own and gives them room to try big ideas — knowing the full collaborative power of their co-workers is behind them. 

6. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

Author Brené Brown might have said it best: “There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” Coming up with new approaches to communications challenges isn’t easy; giving people room to try big ideas sometimes means they’ll also fail. Evaluate what you can learn after something doesn’t go as planned. 

Spend time sharing lessons learned to help everyone cope better the next time — and the time after that. This is a mindset that we share with clients, often discussing what can be learned after a project or execution. These discussions are valued and bring new insights and show clients that you are willing to push, pivot and approach things differently.

According to Steven Johnson, a science author, “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect,” he said. In other words, an innovative culture begins with a commitment from leadership to create a culture that encourages a mindset of learning, growth, change and intentional transformation. 

Follow some or all these tips to create that environment and avoid falling behind. How does your team innovate? Drop me a line at bcastellini@wordsworthweb.com.