How to Foster an Innovative Mindset in Your Organization

“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.”?~ Theodore Levitt

When a new idea is presented at work, various responses can occur. Some may involve playing devil's advocate by critiquing the idea and identifying potential challenges. Others may be involved in quickly dismissing or ignoring the idea, hoping it will fade away.

What a leader says and does when someone comes to them with an idea can spur innovation or stifle it. Studies show that 67% of the climate for creativity in organisations is directly attributed to the leader's behaviour.

Reading this article will take about 6-8 minutes, and it will share with you four facets of an innovative mindset and what you can do as a leader to encourage an innovative mindset within your people.

Enjoy it, and if it makes sense, share it with others. :)

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Caution, scepticism, judging, and dismissal are understandable — and typical — responses to new ideas, especially when resources are strapped. Yet they’re also signs of subconsciously sabotaging innovation and developing innovative mindsets. To foster trust, creativity, collaboration, and innovation within and across teams, you must work to create a psychologically safe culture where team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas. These unfiltered ideas are what lead to innovation.

Research studies have shown that an innovative mindset can benefit organisations.?For instance, a study published in the Frontiers in Psychology journal in 2022 found that employees with a paradoxical mindset can make creative things happen by proactively managing the tensions between exploration and exploitation.??

Additionally, a study by the Boston Consulting Group revealed that companies prioritising innovation outperform their peers by 2.5 times. Furthermore, a study published on ScienceDaily in 2020 found that having a "growth mindset of interest" may spark innovative thinking, leading to higher-quality integrative ideas. These findings highlight the importance of fostering an innovative mindset within organisations to drive creativity, problem-solving, and adaptability.

What Does an Innovative Mindset Require?

To counter this natural tendency and foster innovation in their teams and among their direct reports, leaders can develop an innovative mindset and learn innovation processes, tools, and skills.

What’s an innovative mindset exactly?

Leaders who have an innovative mindset:

1. Have curiosity
2. Can tolerate ambiguity
3. Practice affirmative judgment and
4. Show persistence.

4 facets of an innovative mindset

An innovative mindset fosters creativity, collaboration, and innovation within an organisation. There are four facets of an innovative mindset that can help individuals and teams develop this mindset:

1. Curiosity: Being open to new ideas and willing to explore different possibilities. Curiosity fuels the acquisition of new information and is the source of creativity and innovation. Curious leaders ask, "What if?" or "How might we do something different?"

2. Tolerance of ambiguity: Being comfortable with uncertainty and complexity, which is necessary for innovation. Innovative leaders balance the need to move forward with the need to hold themselves open to options.?

3. Persistence: The ability to stay open to possibilities and not give up easily when faced with challenges. Creative output typically requires many failed attempts and new ideas take root in environments where failure is tolerated.?

4. Affirmative judgment: Instead of focusing on what won't work, it involves recognising the strengths and value of new ideas and fostering a positive and innovative environment. Affirmative judgment also provides recognition and promotes a sense of accomplishment and progress.?

Leaders can develop these four facets to foster an innovative mindset. Leaders can also create a psychologically safe culture where team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas, which leads to innovation.?

Innovation and innovative mindsets don’t happen without leadership. Regardless of the brilliance of your strategy, remember that the culture will support it or kill it. Since leaders significantly impact the culture, it’s up to you as the leader to develop it.

The next time you hear a new idea or are asked to weigh in on a new solution, choose to lead with an innovative mindset and foster innovation.

How Do You Encourage an Innovative Mindset on Your Team?

Encouraging an innovative mindset on a team involves creating a culture that supports innovation and fosters creativity.?

According to Jennifer Kenny, author of "The Innovation Mindset," this can be achieved by encouraging immersive experiences, co-creation, and collaboration.?

Forbes suggests that leaders should have one-on-one conversations with team members, reward creativity, and eliminate obstacles to create an environment that inspires outside-the-box thinking. Additionally, leaders should give space for experimentation and failure, tap into client feedback, and meet team members where they "live."

The Center for Creative Leadership recommends that leaders should resist the instinct to kill a new idea, create a psychologically safe culture where team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas, and develop an innovative mindset.?

Companies have measured the success of their efforts to foster an innovative mindset by tracking innovation metrics, such as the number of new ideas, improvements, or creative solutions proposed by the team and the number of adopted proposals.?

Additionally, companies can measure innovation by tracking customer loyalty scores, employee engagement scores, and market penetration percentages.?

However, research suggests that only one-third of Fortune 1000 companies use formal metrics to evaluate their innovation, and only 22% of companies have indicators in place to assess the effectiveness of innovation.?

Therefore, it is crucial for companies to develop a culture of innovation that encourages risk-taking, fosters creativity, and drives progress. Companies such as 3M, Airbnb, Amazon, and Google have successfully fostered an innovative mindset, leading to their continued success.

Ask yourself,

1. What is your first instinct when someone comes up with a new idea to you?
2. What actions are you taking to foster a culture of innovation within your team proactively?
3. How would it benefit you if your team was more innovative?
4. How can you achieve it? What new steps can you start to take?