Amiel Gross’ Techniques on How to Empower Employees to Innovate

Innovative employees can be your company’s best asset. They have the creativity, original thinking, and drive to solve problems that others may overlook. If you want your team to be able to innovate without micromanaging them or having to constantly check in on progress, here, Amiel Gross shares six powerful techniques you can try today. These tips will help your team see new possibilities, break out of their creative ruts, and trust their instincts.

Amiel Gross, who is the Vice President and Head of Legal at The Center for Breakthrough Medicines, says that his job is to empower their work so that innovation is allowed to prosper.

Define your strategy

It’s a mistake to keep your strategy under lock and key. Instead, define it broadly and let employees know what you hope to accomplish through innovation. Let everyone on the team know the full context of the problem you’re trying to solve. In addition, let them know how their job fits into the bigger picture of solving that problem. Let them know what the company’s mission is and why employees should care about it. By defining your strategy, you’ll take some of the pressure off employees to come up with all new ideas. While every employee does have a unique perspective on how to solve a problem, they’ll be more confident and less worried about being judged if they’re aware of the overall direction of the company.

Provide regular training in new skills

Learning new skills doesn’t just happen organically at work. In order to innovate, employees need to learn new skills. That means learning how to think like a designer, or how to get beyond their comfort zone and try something new. It also means taking on a mentorship role and coaching other employees. If your company has a formal training program, make sure to use it. If not, do what you can to get your employees trained on new skills as often as possible, advises Amiel Gross. Make sure to pair employees up with mentors outside of work. This will help them learn from those with more experience, while also providing exposure to different ways of thinking.

Accept failure as part of the learning process

If you want to empower employees to innovate, you have to accept that failure is an inherent part of the process. Employees will make mistakes. They may not get something done as quickly as they’d like or design something that isn’t perfect. It’s through these failures that employees learn, grow, and learn how to accept failure as part of the process. Not accepting failure as part of the process can have a huge impact on the way employees feel about themselves and the way they feel they can contribute. If they don’t have the skills necessary to solve a problem or make a product, they may feel defeated and lack confidence in themselves. But if they accept that failure is a part of the learning process, they can find a new way to approach these challenges.

Build a maker culture

A maker culture is one in which employees feel empowered to make things. A maker culture is different from a production culture in which employees focus on creating a product and then shifting their focus to sales and marketing. With a maker culture, employees don’t just focus on creating a product, they focus on making a product they’re proud of and that they’re excited to share with the world. Makers are different from employees who focus on creating a product and then shifting their focus to sales and marketing. Makers see their role as helping others make things too. This can be as simple as showing someone how to use Photoshop or as complicated as giving the engineering team a design for a product your team built. At the end of the day, makers want to empower others to innovate and make things. They want to help other employees feel more confident and inspired to innovate.

Include employees in the decision-making process

Including employees in the decision-making process can have a huge impact on how employees feel about the company and themselves. If employees feel like their input and ideas aren’t valued, it can have a huge impact on how much they feel connected to the organization. Including employees in the decision-making process can have a huge impact on how employees feel about the company and themselves. Ideally, you want to make sure all voices are accounted for on the decision-making process. This doesn’t mean you have to have a meeting on every issue at your company. It just means holding regular meetings or checking in with employees where they can voice their ideas on a larger scale. You don’t have to listen to every idea or take every comment as gospel. But, you do want to make sure ideas or comments are getting highlighted, taking into account.

Conclusion

Innovation is crucial to the future of your business. It can help your company become more profitable and successful than ever before. But it’s important to remember that innovation is a skill that can be learned. It requires practice and determination. Innovation can also be difficult for employees to cultivate because they may feel uncomfortable being judged for it. This can make it even more challenging for your team to innovate. Luckily, you can empower employees to innovate by using these tips. By using these techniques consistently, you'll be able to help your employees learn new skills and build confidence in their ability to innovate. Once your employees feel comfortable and confident in their ability to innovate, it will have a huge impact on how much they enjoy their jobs.