How Will You Lead Your Team Towards Innovation in 2024?

Innovation in The New Year

23% of New Year’s Resolutions are abandoned within the first week, with 43% abandoned by the end of January. So how can we think bigger than our resolutions? Define what change this next year will bring to you and your team: how will you innovate toward growth? New Year’s Eve might mark the end of a year, however, New Year’s Day is truly the real celebration, as it propels us towards a more hopeful tomorrow.

Foster an Environment to Drive Innovation

Different methods of innovation might work for your team, depending on the dynamic. Some ideas we at Collaborative Consulting suggest are:

Set Aside One Hour for Brainstorming: Designating individual and team brainstorming time allows for best possible collaboration opportunities as well as a chance for an employee to feel heard by sharing their individual idea. Aim to do this once every 2 weeks.
Avoid Micromanaging: The best ideas come from free thought and flowing collaboration, not from a manager peering over their employee’s shoulder!
Inspire Teamwork: A ship sails best when all hands are on deck, and a great idea might as well. When you look at your “to-do’s” for this year, challenge yourself by designating which ones could be tackled by a team rather than an individual. Inspiring teamwork will not only bond your company, but help your team to work more efficiently together.
Introduce Design Thinking: Many people think that creativity is something that can’t be learned. You either have it or you don’t, right? WRONG.

Implementing Design Thinking

Design thinking is more than a creative process, but rather the belief that creativity is something we are all capable of, and providing a structure to it. Below are the 5 steps of design thinking:

Empathize: Understand who your customer is, but more importantly, what it feels like to actually be your customer. What are the obstacles between initial interest and actually purchasing your goods/services?
Define: What is the main obstacle/problem in the way of the ideal customer experience?
Ideate: Generate 3 solutions to fix this problem with your team.
Prototype: Turn 1 of those solutions into a usable prototype.
Test: Put the prototype into action! Evaluate if it is a viable solution, and repeat the process until your team stumbles upon a solution that provides results.

Some of the greatest products have been developed by design thinking, with AirBnB being one of the most successful results of this creative process!

Companies may inspire their employees to set New Year’s resolutions, or have office competitions, however, a well run company will inspire new priorities rather than resolutions. What a company is really celebrating is a chance to shift their mindset. Fresh starts can mean new ideas, new mindsets, or better yet, innovation. Innovation is not only known to increase employee engagement, increase motivation, but also has the innate ability to shift a company’s culture and habits.

52% of Fortune 500 companies have disappeared over the last 20 years due to their lack of innovation. Don’t let innovation end with this article, we’re just an email away!