How to foster a spirit of innovation and creativity

Traditional organisation structures have been created to maximise efficiency, embed specialisation, minimise redundancy, create focus, accountability and control. But what unintentionally happens is that this creates boundaries, hesitation to look beyond employees own work, inhibits innovation and creativity and questioning is lost. Cross-functional learning and teamwork fosters a spirit of innovation and creativity, effectiveness with efficiency.

Sometimes, learning about something that isn’t directly relevant to an employee’s job might actually provide some value to their function. It allows the employee to appreciate the flow of process, see the larger picture, bring a fresh approach to work, encourages ideas, improves job satisfaction and enhances creativity.

For example, how there are some very applicable things to learn from someone who does marketing for a living:

Research – a BIG part of marketing is research. Marketers need to know whom they need to present products and services to, so a huge chunk of the marketing function is dedicated to upfront research.

Messaging – marketers need to be cognizant of putting forth appropriate messages and material once they’ve identified their target audience. Sound familiar?

When deciding on the most suitable learning methods for your business, take into account these advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

· Management development

· Product development

· Staff collaboration

· Team building

· Maximised collaboration

· Increased productivity and performance

· Increased ownership and commitment

· Transfer of information learnt to home team

Disadvantages

· Employee downtime

· Distraction

· Lack of employee engagement in a department that isn’t directly related to their role

To learn about alternative learning methods, such as digital, mobile, social learning, and classroom, download the ebook Guide to workplace learning.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read: How to make it happen!