Innovation Isn’t Just For Start-Ups

January 7th, 2019

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“The day we stop learning is the day we die.”
– Michael Scott

This all too common quote can also be applied to our businesses; the day we stop innovating in our business, is the day we die. But, how can you innovate when you’re in a classic or very structured industry?

There are many reasons to incorporate innovation as a regular part of your business. Perhaps though, you just don’t have the time to ‘think ahead’ due to working on and in your company all at the same time.

So, to provide some insight into how you can get your creative juices running, we’ve put together a list of five simple and practical suggestions to help you:

1. Host a lunch-and-share with your entire team.

Ask:

  • What could make them more efficient in their jobs?
  • What is one thing they have stopped doing manually as they’ve accessed new tools?
  • What is something that could be automated that would increase productivity?

Collect all of the ideas and don’t discard any, regardless of how crazy or wild it might be or seem. Wait 24 hours and then return to the list and see which one(s) you could act on.

Cropped shot of a group of business colleagues in the office having a meeting and discussing plans for the future

2. Create an innovation team/committee.

Taking a page from a company known for its innovation, Apple has an innovation committee. Anyone can take an idea to the innovation committee and present it. The idea can be in the embryo stage or fully thought through and fleshed out. The committee then has a budget (time & money) to commit to innovation.

In your workplace, you could create an innovation committee out of your team lunch-and-share, with the first task of vetting the ideas already put forward.

3. Give your team one day a month (or quarter) to work on whatever project or task they want.

You will be amazed by what comes out of these sessions. Did you know this is how some of Google’s greatest inventions where born, like AdSense?

Shot of office workers in a meeting in a boardroom

4. Start following Entrepreneurs who are known for being Innovative.

Some Ontarian Entrepreneurs include:

5. Spend 10 minutes twice a week reading articles or blogs on Innovation.

Some suggested websites are:

Diversity startup business team working together. They are sitting by the desk. Selective focus to man with beard talking to coworkers.

Time To Get Ideating!

We hope you’ve found this list of ideas for injecting innovation into your workplace helpful. If you know of any other entrepreneurs or websites that you think should be on this list, we would love to hear from you!

At Treefrog, we encourage innovation and thought leadership in all that we do; we even have innovation ideation sessions for our clients. If you would like a complimentary 60-minutes session, please let us know.

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