Highlights
Team members need to be informed, engaged, and part of the process to ensure everyone’s working together.
Remember that the issue may not be related to work, but rather a private problem. You’ll need to make space for that.
Having one source of truth to meet, document, and engage can be a useful way to maintain productivity.
Innovation thrives on teamwork. Yet sometimes, not everybody’s on the same page or feeling like they’re part of the team. Here’s how you can help every member of your group get up to speed, work together, and deal with problems.
Leave Room for Personal Issues
One thing to remember is that work is just one facet of anybody’s life. People on your team may be dealing with personal issues, family problems, or medical concerns. Design any innovation strategy with this in mind, as some team members may be struggling and lack innovative spirit. Have a way to be contacted privately so people can express their concerns.
Get to Know Everyone
Have a place where the entire team can get to know each other professionally and personally. Social events, personal profiles, getting-to-know-you emails, informal videoconferencing, and internal communications are all good ways to let people get to know each other. This also extends to leadership. As people are less likely to engage and get to know you and the team, they’ll warm up to the process.
Involve the Whole Team
When it comes to designing strategies or launching innovation campaigns, the entire team should be involved from the beginning. This not only gets people invested in the process, but it also helps refine those challenges for maximum impact. When a campaign is designed by people who largely have the same role, it tends to be geared toward those people—a broader range of team members involved at launch not only keeps them engaged but also brings the rest of your audience closer to the campaign.
Be Transparent
People disengage when they don’t feel heard, and opaque processes make this feeling worse. Every idea, project, and process should be clearly documented so people can understand where their ideas went, who considered them, and how decisions were made. This not only provides better ideas, but it helps people understand why their ideas didn’t make the cut or what needs to be changed for them to catch on. Transparency helps people feel they’ve been heard and treated fairly.
Embrace Failure
The truth of innovation is very few ideas don’t change during the process. Sometimes an idea is good, but its execution is unworkable. In these situations, the focus needs to be on what was learned and how it can be used. Again, this helps people feel heard and it helps them stay involved. If they know their work pays off, even in an unexpected way, they’re more likely to come back with new ideas.
Engagement can drive an innovation strategy to new heights and bring in the diverse voices an innovation campaign needs.
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