Innovation in teams can be defined as the act of starting something new for the first time, something that has not yet been done by the team. The creation may rise from a study or experiment. Innovation could be termed as the brain child of creativity of the team members. Proper motivation is needed so as to be able to foster proper innovation in the team. The team must have a clear guideline and understanding of what innovation is and what it entails.
Benefits of Innovation in Teams
Nurturing innovation in a team also has great benefits on not only the team members but also to the organization as a whole. This includes:
- The organization benefits greatly by being the first organization to take a product or service to the market before any of their competitors.
- Innovation gives the organization an edge over its competition. By being the first organization to take a new product or service to the market the organization gains a large market share.
- Due to having a large market share and increased team productivity the organization benefits by the increase of profit margins. This in turn increases the share price of the organization.
- Innovation also leads to increase in shareholder dividends due to the increased profit margins of the company.
- Innovation will increase the overall production of the organization by having a highly motivated team.
Nurturing innovation in teams has great benefits. They are:
- Nurturing innovation increases curiosity in the team. Curiosity leads to the team trying out new ideas and concepts.
- Nurturing innovation leads to increased productivity of the team. This can be through positive competition within the team.
- Nurturing innovation leads to the team building and cohesiveness. The team acts as a single unit in order to meet the goals of innovation that have been set.
- Nurturing innovation will increased employee motivation and morale. Team motivation and morale is important in productivity.
- Nurturing innovation encourages the team with passion in undertaking their tasks. Innovation leads to the team having more praise other than criticism and these increases and boosts the teams spirit when facing a problem.
Strategies and Actions to Promote and Foster Innovation in Teams
In a bid to foster innovation the organization could adopt a few strategies which encourage the team members to be as innovative as possible. So as to increase innovation the organization must first select the appropriate team to tackle the problem in hand. The team must be chosen in a free and fair manner and it should only contain people who are qualified in the particular field that the organization is dealing in. the team selected must include individuals who are ready to learn new things and are ready to branch away from the norm. The organization has to device practical and realistic ways for the team to overcome the problem facing the organization.
The organization should then come up with an approach to nurture innovation in its team members. From time to time the organization should reflect upon its approach so as to ensure that the organization has in place proper measures and strategies that are in tune with the organizations morals, plans and objectives of the organization. The organization should then inform the whole team of the strategies and motivate the team to come up with new ideas for a new product or service.
The organization should adopt a strategy of free flow of ideas within the team whereby the team members should be free to exchange information and ideas for the betterment of the organization. The organization should come up with an award scheme for some of the most innovative ideas. Awards could be in the form of salary bonuses to the team or team member who came up with the most innovative idea. The organization must also ensure that the owner of an implemented idea get recognition for their work done.
The organization must also be able to avail enough funds, resource and time so as to facilitate the research, design, testing and implementation of the innovative ideas. The organization must encourage team member not to give up and take chances with ideas. The organization should encourage the team to learn from its mistakes in the past.
In as much as the team should be able to take risks the organization must be able to teach the team how to pick between the risks and the benefits of taking the risk. To be able to differentiate the two should be well explained to the team members.