15 steps to innovate in IT

Demystifying innovation: Innovative solutions can be simple and cost-effective for the company.

In times of crisis or not, companies must look for alternatives to differentiate themselves on the market. Innovating is the best way to ensure competitiveness and can lead to increased billing, process agility, cost reduction and expansion of the customer portfolio. Improvements can contribute to both organizational structure and processes, products and services. Team knowledge and involvement are key elements in the innovation journey.

However, the way companies manage knowledge must change. Managers must master management, marketing and technology information; Collaborators must have access to information relevant to each person’s daily work. Combining easy access to this important information with the cultural background of team members is a way to strengthen the possibilities for innovation within the company. All collaborators must have access to the same information and discuss how each interprets it. Of course, simply accessing is not enough; it is still necessary to guarantee the quality of the available knowledge and its adaptation to the company reality.

1- Identification

To get started on the path to innovation, the first step is to identify where the company is failing and how it could be more assertive. Leadership is essential to inspire the team and serve as an example and reference in the change process. If leaders are not open to innovation, the energy and resources available will not be sufficient to meet expectations.

2- Evaluation

Once the company is willing to leave the comfort zone, leaders must evaluate and adapt the team to the new mindset. This often involves changing established processes. You need to make the new directions clear to all team members and check whether they are open to change. Effective communication is essential in this process, capable of promoting team commitment and motivation. However, with all collaborators involved in the change, results can take time. So, patience and perseverance must accompany the process.

3- Dedication to innovation

If companies like 3M and Google didn’t encourage their employees to dedicate part of their work time to «doing what they want», perhaps we wouldn’t have post-it on our tables and a Gmail account.

Some companies encourage their employees to use that portion of free time to dedicate to innovation. While there is no one recipe for innovating companies, some characteristics are essential to enable a team to be truly innovative.

4- Team management

Managers cannot expect anything innovative from their team if they do not offer collaborators autonomy in daily activities. Remaining exclusively in the execution of predetermined and automated activities limits anyone’s creativity and does not lead to proposing something different. The team must understand and participate in the decision-making process.

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Leaders must also be open to listening to their team. And above all, everyone’s ideas and opinions must be taken seriously. How to stimulate an innovative environment without being open to listening to all those involved in the process? Different points of view can lead to important discoveries.

5- Experimentation

Being afraid of making mistakes is a way to contain changes and get the job done in the most standardized way possible. The opportunity to innovate requires the ability to take risks. Scolding your team members every time one of them makes a small mistake is a way to stifle any initiative that leads to the creation of something new, different and innovative.

Most people associate innovation with high investments and complex changes. However, innovating can be simple and cheap or even at no cost. Simple things, but which add value, streamlining tasks, reducing costs and improving customer service and the credibility of the company.

Being convinced that innovation is part of the competitiveness of companies, where to start?

6- Start by adopting an innovative vision for yourself and a more flexible posture in your daily life. Approach all aspects of your life more questioningly, thinking about how to act better and differently.

7- Identify possible obstacles and what can be improved based on the characteristics of your company.

8- Analyze the scenario and the financial situation of the company and the resources available to avoid compromising the capital.

9- Analyze the market: investigate competitors, partners, target audiences, potential customers and opportunities.

10- Structure an action plan, identify the final objective of the project and prepare the phases that must be followed to achieve it.

11- Strengthen your team with clear communication of company objectives and projects being implemented. Promote a feedback Consistent with team members regarding their expectations for delivery and results.

12- Enhance and learn to work with the data that the company has on customers, products, processes and projects, always leaving them accessible to everyone. This information is a source of ideas.

13- Focus on added value. Actions must have a common and joint objective to bring value to the customer and the company. Accompany each working day so that the team remains aware and motivated.

14- Establish result indicators to evaluate the progress of processes and adapt to new needs that may arise.

15- Recognize the merits and efforts of the team, creating an environment that enhances the self-esteem of collaborators and rewards them for their commitment, creativity and proactivity in daily activities.

Sources:

http://cio.com.br/gestao/2015/03/16/cinco-passos-para-aplicar-inovacao-na-ti/
http://www.techoje.com.br/site/techoje/categoria/detalhe_artigo/574
http://imasters.com.br/gerencia-de-ti/tendencias/%E2%80%8Ba-inovacao-no-brasil-ea-internet-de-todas-as-coisas/