Building a Culture of Innovation with Insights from Google, Amazon and Pixar
A Guide to Creative Office Shenanigans
You’re at work, and all of a sudden someone screams, “Eureka!” It’s not because they’ve found a stray donut underneath their desk, but rather because they’ve recently stumbled on some amazing new idea that no one has ever thought of.
This is what most people dream about when they think about work — a place full of smart people constantly coming up with fresh ideas and at the same time having fun doing it graciously, where creativity oozes from everywhere like coffee during a breakfast meeting.
If you are looking to foster an atmosphere that fosters innovation, get your hard hat and feather duster because we are going beneath the surface and exploring the construction of a culture of innovation!
Three Insights from Three Giants
Now, let’s explore how one can build a culture that not only embraces creativity but celebrates it. From embracing crazy ideas to creating a safe space for failure, we’ll uncover the secrets to building a workplace where innovation is not just a buzzword but a way of life.
Embrace the Crazy Ideas
It’s often the most unexpected places which give birth to innovation — such as when an idea is scrawled on the back of a napkin, or found in the bottom of a cereal box. That’s why you must allow your group members to get out from under their usual norms: they should consider this concept so fiercely that they would turn that box into a spaceship if needs be. After all, weirder ideas lead to more memorable stories come party time in the future among colleagues.
Take Google’s “20% time” policy, where employees were encouraged to spend one-fifth of their work hours on personal projects. This led to the creation of Gmail, Google News, and other groundbreaking products that originated from seemingly wild ideas.
Create a Safe Space for Failure
They say failure is the cornerstone of success. However, it is essential to foster an environment that praises rather than condemns it because that way, a lot of new ideas can come in. On a lighter note, lighten up please who wants to listen to hear you crashing and burning during karaoke while their morale is going down.
Take Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, as an example; he is known for enticing experimentation culture and allowing for failure to thrive. Amazon released Fire Phone which was a commercial failure, yet this did not stop their efforts on other fronts. Instead the culture they instilled saw them not only rebound but leapfrog into premium products such as Kindle or Echo speakers and become truly successful.
Encourage Collaboration
Two brains are always better than one unless one of the brains becomes infected with a virus of some sort (pun intended and not necessarily the microbe, I lead a tech company after all). Your team should be reminded to work together, share their thoughts, and enhance the qualities of one another. The future can be exciting if people will only learn from their past experiences.
Pixar Animation Studios is a well-known company for having a culture of teamwork where different departments such as artists and writers collaborate effectively for every single film they produce. In this company efforts were combined to produce new styles of movies such as “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo”.
Benefits of a Creative Culture
It is not only important to have a fun and creative working environment. Establishing a culture of innovation can also lead to specific benefits that push business growth. For instance, the culture of innovation allows for a greater commitment of workers to their work.
Competitive Advantage: To keep up with the competition, one must keep on innovating. Encouraging new ideas and thinking creatively can make your business more recognizable and enable you to attract a highly-skilled workforce.
Better Problem-Solving: By often looking at problems through fresh and unique lenses, innovation comes up. Your team can approach problems differently by creating a culture where innovation thrives, thereby leading to better ways of solving them.
Improved Employee Morale: Make sure that your workplace is a more exciting and fulfilling place to be by creating a culture of innovation. In case you are an individual; who feels valued and motivated to give their opinion, you are most likely to enjoy and take part in what you do.
Enhanced Customer Experience: Continuous innovation helps in staying ahead of customer expectations leading to customer loyalty through improving customer experience which subsequently can culminate in developing new service and product designs.
The Takeaway
Building an innovative culture is not only about fun and constructive places where people work but also about creating one that receives ideas and breeds creativity. In today’s competitive business environment, embracing wild ideas, creating secure areas for failure, and promoting teamwork can help organizations open up myriad options leading to success.
Certainly, the competitive edge can be enhanced, productivity can increase, problem-solving can be improved and employee morale enhanced at the very least.
Raise your glasses to the chaos of creativity, untamed ideas, and that spirit of cleverness. It is more about molding an innovation-prone culture but molding tomorrow that is limitless.
