Innovation and diversity can appear in almost any aspect of an organization or businesses. It can appear in things from designing and promoting products to hiring and training a competent staff. Innovation can be free and easy or expensive and complex. Below are the things the C-suite executives of any company or organization needs to drive innovation.
1. Change where you’re headed by setting big and audacious goals
and ensure that everyone owns your goals.
To really drive innovation, set long goals to promote an innovative culture, one which enables employees at all levels to be involved. Let somebody who is highly skilled be in charge of your community or environmental goals. Make sure that you let your supply chain manager vet potential suppliers not only for the price, but also for sustainability.
2. Do not change what you know by asking employees for ideas,
get inspired by nature and unlearn outdated knowledge.
Your employees see opportunities every day while going about their jobs. A good C-suite leader can ask for their thoughts and take these into consideration. A perfect example is the 850 employee-led “Green Teams” of the United States Postal Service; that helped in saving about $50 million related to fuel, water, energy, and waste and at the same time generating almost $25 million through recycling.
Watch videos and read books & magazines on topics that you normally would not. Pay attention to the products or business ideas from other countries and go to conferences in seemingly unrelated fields.
“As a leader, you can challenge the way you’ve always done things and look for ways you could do it differently.”
You can also think of how nature can solve your design or process problem. For examples, the tree limbs and human skeletal system inspire the engineers that designed the automotive frames. Another example is the bumps on whale fins which reduce aerodynamic drag, these spawned a wave of sophisticated aircraft propellers, wings, and turbines.
Also, as a leader in an organization, you must be willing to challenge the way you’ve always done things and look for ways you could do it differently. For example, maybe you can get materials from renewable sources or buy the wind or solar electricity instead of the usual supply from the grid.
