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Employee Engagement

Building an Employee-Led Innovation Strategy

Innovation strategy

Table of Contents

3 ways to build an innovation strategy that people in your organization will care about and want to be involved in.

Start your innovation strategy with a purpose

First andย foremost,ย your innovation strategy needs to come from a place of purpose and meaningย โ€“ particularly if you want this to capture the imagination of your workforce and engage the wider business. Obviously,ย there needs to be fundamental business and industry needs for your organization to beginย this journey,ย but that cannot be the story youย tell toย yourย employees.ย You need to sell on the factย thatย the strategy is by the people, for the people.

This has famously been phrased as โ€˜finding your whyโ€™.

Finding the purpose of your strategy can be tricky, especially as the majority will be about creating new business and revenue streams. This isnโ€™t going to inspireย anyoneย and your strategy wonโ€™t thrive.ย This is whyย I would suggest not starting from scratchโ€ฆ

Find a purpose orย causeย that already exists in your business and already resonates with your people and build off this.

There are twoย keyย areas of focus:

Area 1: Employee Engagement Surveys

Building the strategy off the back of anย employeeย engagement survey is the ideal opportunity. Many organizations use anย employeeย engagement survey to gauge the noise within the business. How happy are people? What do people want to change? What do people love?

At the outset of this strategyย look intoย theย details ofย any employee surveys and grab those themes and nuggets of gold that will tell you what is important to them. As well as this showing you โ€˜getโ€™ your people, it saves you a lot of groundwork and gets you off to the perfect start with pulling your strategy together.

Area 2: Company Values

Another method is building your innovation strategy off your existing company values. Most organizations will have a set of values that they strive to operate by. Many will have a value that shows the company aspires to be more and wants to do things differently. Although paid lip service a lot of the time, your people will know and understand these values โ€“ they will be a recognizable brand. Use these values and align your strategy to them.

Iโ€™ve doneย thisย in the past with great success. Iโ€™ve stolen the meaning and brandingย ofย a corporateย valueย and itโ€™sย givenย the strategy life and familiarity. Itโ€™s a way of saying that your strategy is born out of growing the company culture.

These are a couple of examplesย to get you started,ย but the recommendation is simple. Donโ€™t start from scratch if you can help it. Use existing knowledge to provide you with a leg up that willย giveย your strategyย much-needed familiarity and purpose.

Always come back to engagement

Once the framework is set and your purpose is known, then get out there and test your theories. Talk to your people. Find out what innovation means to them and what they want your organization to look like. By showing this vulnerability and telling people you โ€˜donโ€™t have all the answersโ€™, it will immediately get the buy-in of those involved.

The questions you ask people need to be simple. Iโ€™ve had success by asking โ€˜what is the best thing youโ€™ve doneโ€™, โ€˜whatโ€™s the best thing youโ€™ve seenโ€™ and โ€˜if I had a magic wand, what could I do to improve your day jobโ€™. These simple questions show you are listening and you need to include this feedback in your innovation strategy.

After taking this on board you need to show that you are listening. What is it your people want? From your executive sponsors down to the junior-level employees, what do they want? I have found the response to this question to be incredibly complex and incredibly simple. It can range from simply providing a place to innovate, such as an ideation process,ย all the way to seeing monetary investment in ideas and an increased level of R&D Tax rebates.

Listen, Engage, Repeat โ€“ Innovation Strategy

Simply put, your innovation strategy needs to start with listening to your organization and finish with a response. A saying I love is that โ€˜people are meaning monstersโ€™, they want a purpose, they want to belong, they want to know they have a voice that will be listened to. Innovation is all about harnessing the power of people and ideas so you need the people to power this. Show vulnerability, ask for help, empower your people to give their views and respond to these views. This is where your strategy should be grounded. But remember, you donโ€™t have to start from scratch hereโ€ฆ you may just have to listen to something that has already been said.

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Author details

Customer Success Manager

Serial learner, Rob, has an endless supply of book and podcast suggestions, and is always on the hunt for fresh, new advice. The one time you wonโ€™t find him brushing up on his business skills is when heโ€™s busy cheering on his favorite soccer team, Manchester United! With a background delivering projects and innovation in the construction industry, heโ€™s become an expert on people-first innovation and business transformation. Rob is passionate about delivering successful innovation and transformation projects and is focused on understanding the impact this can have on organizations, industries, and society.

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