If you’re attempting to inspire a more innovative company culture or simply need to inspire your employees to innovate more, here are five exercises that will help you boost innovation across your organization.
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1. Innovation Tournaments
Implement this exercise instead of using a suggestion box. Host a tournament that lasts several weeks with multiple rounds during which employees work to submit innovative ideas.
Center the tournament on a central theme, such as innovating how to improve a certain product—it must revolve around a central problem that needs to be resolved or touch on an untapped need; otherwise, the exercise will be unfocused and not yield tangible results.
Employees should work on their proposals for innovative ideas and then evaluate one another’s proposals, after which the best ideas advance to the next round each time. The winner of the last round, and the tournament, will receive a budget, a team, and the mentorship necessary to make his or her ideas a reality.
2. ‘Kill the Company’
For this exercise, have employees form groups that try to come up with ways to put your organization out of business. This allows your employees to see your organization from your competitors’ perspectives and gives them a sense of urgency to create innovative ways to keep your company in business and competitive.
3. ‘Idea Pitch’ Day
Once a month, allow employees of any rank or status to pitch an idea they have to improve any sector of your business. This consistently promotes creativity across all sectors of your business and gives employees the opportunity to think outside the everyday limitations of their department or roles. It can even inspire positive collaboration and communications across your entire business.
4. Meditation Meetings
Sometimes, innovation can stagnate when employees are burned out or when they’ve been focusing too intently on a single problem or dilemma for too long.
If you notice innovation decreasing across your department or organization, hold meetings where employees refocus their energy and clear their minds by meditating. Some research even suggests that the workplace is actually the best place for you to meditate. So, whether your employees are meditating together or on their own, encourage them to slow down to increase their likelihood of coming up with the next and best innovative idea for your organization.
5. Take Trips Outside of the Office
If your employees are producing the same ideas time and time again, they might need a change of scenery to get their imaginations going. So, take your daily or weekly meetings outside of the office or have an office-day field trip where you visit a museum or attend a conference.
Doing this will allow your employees to think outside their cubicles and will allow them to gain new perspectives and insights to recharge their creativity. Better yet, take them on a hike or walk around your local park, as research suggests that being in nature increases an individual’s level of creativity, too.