So what can we do to make sure our innovation communities don’t become ghost towns?
Foster emotional safety throughout the workforce.
Emotional safety in the workplace, alongside accountability, is essential. Accountability ensures we contribute, but accountability without emotional safety means we fear failure and can lead people to ‘play it safe’ with their ideas.
If individuals feel that their creative contributions to the wider organisation will have a direct positive impact on their own standing within that organisation, they will be naturally more motivated to contribute beyond the scope of their job description.
Making innovation a routine on a personal level isn’t too complex: set aside time, talk to the right people, embrace failure and think in incremental steps. It is then the job of the organisation, and its leadership, to enable these practices amongst its employees.
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