Using Communication to Foster Innovation

To come up with new ideas, it is important that people in your company are able talk openly without feeling judged or scared. The talking and sharing of ideas should happen between people at all levels in a company.

Giving praise to everyone who shares ideas, whether the ideas get used or not, will make your employees trust the process of sharing new and different ideas. This will motivate and involve them to suggest ideas and solutions before a decision is made.

Talking and working together with people from other parts of the company can help come up with smart solutions to problems and cool new ideas. Sometimes, just looking at a problem or chance from a different point of view can help create many good ideas. When employees from different departments (if you have departments) or co-workers talk to each other, they will trust each other more and not blame one another for problems. If everyone works together, then they all have to solve the problem.

Having ideas should not be an “occasional” thing. If you want your employees to be creative, they need to practice and stretch their creative skills like a muscle. Showing only a short-term interest in new ideas won't help those ideas continue to grow. It should be part of your SME’s everyday way of doing things. You should always push your employees to keep sharing their ideas with their superiors, with you and your colleagues.

The following Communication Strategies will enable you to drive innovation among your team, no matter how big or small your SME is.

Source: own elaboration