Feeling safe to contribute ideas is a baseline requirement for fostering innovation from employees. From how top leaders speak about their commitment to innovation, to how meeting moderators set the energy for brainstorming sessions, to how individual employees build on colleagues’ ideas rather than tear them down, a true culture of innovation must continually emphasize respect, trust, and collaboration. It’s from this psychological safety that employees will feel welcome to contribute their ideas. 

In a world of remote work, prioritize being in person. Having physical space to collaborate with others and build off of in-person energy is really precious for innovation. Cross-team collaboration is also key – you never know when an outside perspective holds the key solution to whatever problem your team is facing. Be it crowdsourcing ideas when your team is in a slump, or asking a different department how they tackled a particular challenge, engaging with different perspectives is crucial to finding innovation unlocks. 

It’s one thing to say that you want employee’s ideas. It’s another to create accessible mechanisms for collecting the ideas. There should be an established way in which your team can share the ideas or challenges they’re facing, whether it’s an all-hands meeting or an anonymous response form. It doesn’t stop there though! Once you’ve acquired the employee feedback, it’s vital to incorporate it into the innovation process. 

Not only is it necessary that your employees have bought-in to the innovation system you’ve created, but that your leadership team has as well. One way to do this is by involving stakeholders in the research process. Having higher-ups intertwined with the process allows for them to feel directly connected to the outcomes. Socializing innovation work is also important. Weaving stories and connecting the dots are essential to bring people along on your innovation journey.