Innovation is critical in today’s work environment. With teams spread across industries, departments, and time zones, successful innovation relies on the right collaboration software. These shared digital workspaces provide a platform to engage, collaborate, and stay connected. It’s a place where the best thinking and invention can take place.
But how do you use collaboration software to innovate? Consider these steps:
1. Define Your Goal
Identify the ideal outcome and define how it will make a difference. Use a collaboration platform that allows team members to have an immediate picture of who is responsible for what and how each member fits with the overall goal.
2. Plan Actionable Ways to Achieve the Goal
Once you come up with the idea and are ready to execute, think critically about what that means. Outline the steps you need to make it happen. Use the collaboration tool to coordinate your activities in terms of sequencing deliverables, evaluating results, and tracking progress.
3. Ask Questions
Collaboration platforms afford members a unified workspace to discuss, share opinions, and work jointly. Put these questions on sticky notes in your digital workspace and let your team add comments or emojis.
- What’s the problem we are trying to solve?
- How can we help people understand?
- What’s a simple explanation of what we are trying to do?
- How will people perceive our idea?
- What are the top 3 negatives that we will combat?
- Is there something like this already?
- How can we be different than others who are already in this market?
4. Be Open to New Ideas
When you’re in the beginning stages, be open to new ideas. Listen and hold individual feedback until you’ve completed all the steps. Use the collaboration tool to empower team members to openly share their points of view. They can share this feedback by name or anonymously.
5. Invite New People
Invite new people to help you innovate because the most unexpected ideas come from unexpected places. Collaboration tools break the challenge of remote and geographical distribution.
6. Take Action
Define how to get to the end-goal. Use the collaboration platform to provide constant updates on who’s doing what — and when.