How to release

your organisation’s
potential for innovation
How to unlock your organisation’s
innovation potential
Every business must improve and innovate not
just to thrive but often just to survive the twists
and turns of the economic climate.
However, innovation and improvement don’t
just happen. Both need to be encouraged and
managed in an environment where everyone
can participate and feel their input is valued. That
environment needs to be simple to use, easy to
navigate and most of all, accessible.
Inform, engage, innovate
There are three stages to creating an
environment where innovation can thrive.
Inform: employees need to be
informed so they can contribute
with confidence. This includes news,
exposure to information, the latest
updates and conversations.
Engage: once informed, employees
can become engaged in the business
at deeper levels, including suggesting
and implementing improvements.
Innovate: engaged employees are far
more likely to come up with innovative
solutions than those who feel
disengaged from the business.
This is why at TalkFreely we provide a suite of
apps that enable communication, conversation
and ideation in a safe, virtual environment. Within
this virtual environment, your employees can help
you reach your business goals, solve problems,
or simply include their peers who otherwise might
never fully engage with your business.
Release the innovation potential
of your employees
Your employees are a rich source of information,
imagination, skills, and frontline business
experience. Most employees want your business
to succeed, and to be part of that success. So,
if you provide the means for them to align their
aims with yours, their improvement and
innovation ideas will flow towards achieving
your goals.
Innovation or improvement?
There is often some confusion about the
difference between innovation and improvement.
They are closely linked but subtly different.
Continual improvement, or continuous
improvement, is an on-going process of
improving the functions of your business. It’s
about identifying changes and then delivering
them as part of normal everyday activity.
Disruptive innovation (or radical innovation) is
about major changes and projects that change
the norm into something new. Examples of
disruptive innovation companies include Uber,
Dyson, Netflix, and Virgin.
Incremental innovation is more gradual in
approach. The World Bank Group’s Innovation
Policy Platform suggests that: ”Incremental
innovation concerns an existing product,
service, process, organization or method
whose performance has been significantly
enhanced or upgraded.”
All three can unlock the potential of your
employees to contribute to your business
beyond their current level of engagement.
Blurring the lines
Inevitably, the lines between employee-driven Your business can engage employees through
innovation and improvement naturally blur. This a wide range of innovation activities that
is because your whole employee engagement previously had to be managed separately or
process is managed to deliver benefits aligned using different channels. For example, you
with business goals. Equally, all three have a can kick-start innovation using:
role to play in driving your business forward,
and creating an overall culture of innovation Company-wide Challenges around a major
that all your employees and management can business goal
contribute to at the level they feel happiest at.
User Group Challenge to address
a specific or technical issue
How to engage your employees in
Surveys and Snap Polls to assess
innovation and improvement current mood or attitudes
Employee engagement is not a goal in itself; it
Reward and Recognition for the best ideas
is the process by which everyone in a company
can be part of continuous and sustainable
employee-driven innovation. The secret to a
lasting innovation culture is to identify:

What is useful to the business

What is beneficial to employees
What is attractive and interesting for
employees to participate in

Six key elements of employee-driven innovation

There are five key elements you must have in place for successful innovation
and improvement in your organisation.

1. Respect at all levels

For innovation to be effective, it needs to be placed at the heart of your business as a
valued, respected and important process, regardless of outcomes. To attain that status,
your innovation initiatives need to have clear ownership from the top. Ownership
confirms that yes, this is a process we as a company have invested time and money into,
and are proud to put our name to.

Equally, there should be clear allocation of responsibilities within the innovation

management system, such as named managers, administrators, and group leaders. An
open and transparent engagement solution based on a suite of apps allows clear lines of
responsibility and communication to be just a click away.
2. Be totally transparent
Employees who are engaged in innovation
and ideation want to see that their input is recognised, appreciated, being discussed
and ultimately, acted upon to deliver changes and benefits. If any employee feels they
have contributed an idea that has been ignored or lost, they will quickly disengage with
the whole process. Not every idea will be a ‘winner’, but in employee-driven innovation,
it really is the taking part that is important. Our TalkFreely suite of apps has that
transparency built in, so employees can track ideas from first submission to final
implementation.

3. Make innovation enjoyable again!

One important element of innovation should never be underestimated; it’s exciting!
The best innovation management solutions reward participation through gamification,
with visible pointers that recognise and reward activity, such as star ratings, Likes,
badges, etc.

4. Do you like a Challenge?

Most people like a challenge. Your business
can set challenges aligned to your business goals through an engagement system’s
innovation and ideation modules/apps. This helps stimulate employees to think beyond
their own departments, and to come up with new innovation and improvement ideas as
part of their everyday business activity online.

5. Organic crowd-sourcing
Once an idea is out there in the virtual community, other engaged employees will be
drawn to comment on it, rate it, and discuss it. This organic form of crowd-sourcing
liberates hidden knowledge, skills and talents such as previous work experiences,
hobbies or business contacts.

This ‘wisdom of the crowd’ is just as valuable in figuring out which are the best ideas
with most chance of succeeding in the real world of day-to-day operations. At
TalkFreely, we call this vital part of any employee-driven innovation process ‘sifting and
shaping’ – sifting the good ideas from the not so good, and shaping the good into
really great ideas through comments and ratings.

6. A rewarding experience
Part of the rewarding experience of participating in innovation is to receive recognition
not just from management but also from your peers. The motivational power of
peer-to-peer recognition is remarkably strong, and can be a powerful driver for
involvement in innovation and ideation. After all, everyone likes a metaphorical pat on
the back from someone they respect!

At TalkFreely, our suite of employee engagement and innovation apps have robust
management tools underpinning every stage of the innovation process. These crucial
tools help your management team in assessing the viability of ideas, the costs involved,
and planning the critical path to implementation. After the innovation or change is
delivered, your managers can create reports so that the success can be replicated,
ready for the next big idea or small incremental improvement.
The business benefits of employee engagement, innovation and
business improvement
Social media style platforms and innovation are a perfect match for stimulating and sifting new ideas,
and there are real benefits to both the process and the delivered outcomes.

New products and services

Offering your customers new products or services is key to the future growth of your
business. They can be radically new (disruptive innovation), or simply upgraded and
improved versions of existing offerings (incremental innovation). The rigorous process of
innovation management allows your business to be confident that each change or upgrade
has been properly thought through, assessed, researched, costed and fits your business
goals long before it hits the shelves.

Improved processes and working practices

Sometimes, the best business improvements
are the small incremental changes (continuous improvements) that make your employees
working lives easier, faster, smarter, more enjoyable. Simple ideas that can make a big
difference can be aired and shared without fear of ridicule, allowing management to
prioritise changes that will help their employees as well as their business goals. (For real
life examples, see our TalkFreely case studies on Coopervision and Computacenter.)

Faster conversion of ideas

Often, effective innovation and improvements are as much about timing as originality.
An effective innovation management process must be flexible enough to prioritise
ideas and fast track them to development and delivery in the right timeframe for
success. Equally, other ideas may take longer to develop, but once finalised, can be
quickly turned into business benefits.

Increased acceptance of change

Transparent employee engagement has an enormous benefit in altering employee
attitudes to change within the business. By being involved in the whole innovation
process, change is not a sudden imposition or a shock event, it is expected and
therefore more readily accepted.

Increased employee engagement

Current research suggests that of a given active online population, 1% create content,
9% comment on it, and 90% read it. So, even if only a small minority of your employees
put forward ideas, the rest are still involved through assimilating the information. These
‘lurkers’ are still involved, informed – and engaged.
 Why choose TalkFreely for your employee
engagement and innovation solutions?
TalkFreely is a modular employee app combining internal
communication, employee engagement and employee-driven
innovation in one easy to sue online solution. Our suite of popular apps
overcome the challenges of modern working practices and rebuild
company-wide communication. Our customisable employee app suite
seamlessly connects your entire workforce to your organisation, and
putting employee-led innovation at the heart of your business.

Interested?
Call us on +44 (0)1730 207 150
Visit us at www.talkfreely.com

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