How to Motivate Employees to Innovate - 9 Smart Tips

Are you trying to inspire your employees to think outside the box and bring fresh ideas to the table which are in line with the corporate strategy and its objectives?

You are not alone, as 87% of executives believe innovation is essential to their organization's success and growth.

However, encouraging employees to innovate is not an easy process. 

It requires the right mindset, support, and smart strategies to turn ideas into solutions, delivering value and financial impact

In this article, you will learn how to motivate employees to innovate with 9 simple tricks! Let’s get started!

9 Powerful Tips to Spark Innovation and New Ideas in Your Team

1. Make Your Employees Feel Valued

Larry Page, co-founder of Google, once said, “My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and they feel they're having a meaningful impact.”

Creating an environment where employees feel their contributions matter is essential for driving innovation. 

When their ideas are valued, people become more invested in their work, take initiative, and often exceed expectations.

In fact, more than 80% of employees say they work harder when appreciated!

Even if an idea isn’t perfect, acknowledging the effort behind it helps build confidence. 

Turning an idea into a profitable project often takes multiple attempts, and this mindset should be deeply ingrained in the company culture.

Tracking all submitted ideas, visualizing the process, and maintaining clear communication help overcome initial obstacles and make it easier to start.

2. Adopt a Non-Hierarchical Structure Wherever Possible

If employees must always go through layers of approvals to make even minor changes, innovative ideas may lose momentum.

A non-hierarchical doesn’t imply a lack of leadership or control but rather suggests a flexible approach that allows contributions from diverse roles to influence big decisions.

Rather than having decisions made solely by hierarchical leaders, why not let the topic expert take the lead?

Incorporating this logic makes it even more important to ensure transparency in the decision-making process and ensures that decisions are based on expertise rather than position.

3. Motivate Your Employees

Besides their personal satisfaction, employees need to see professional benefits to fuel their daily work with creativity. 

To achieve this, you need to keep them motivated!

Providing rewards like bonuses for cost-saving ideas, public recognition, or formal awards at company events encourages employees to invest in innovation and continuously contribute fresh ideas.

For example, Airbnb offers cash and vacation bonuses, along with informal recognition like pop-up celebrations and thank-you notes, to acknowledge employee efforts.

One of our clients provides lunch checks to innovators, allowing them to invite their boss for lunch and discuss what they’ve learned during the innovation process.

Additionally, digital badges for idea submissions, contributions, or reactions can be an effective way to recognize and encourage engagement, helping to highlight the most active employees in the company.

4. Lead by Example

Leading by example is one of the most effective ways to inspire and motivate your employees. When you demonstrate a strong work ethic, integrity, and accountability, you set the tone for the entire team.

To effectively lead by example, embody the following qualities:

• Be actively involved – Don't just delegate! Roll up your sleeves, work alongside your team, and show them you're in it with them.

• Trust your team – Micromanaging kills motivation. Give people the freedom to make decisions and be there to support them when needed.

• Stay adaptable – Change is inevitable, and a good leader embraces it with an open mind. Your ability to adapt will encourage your team to do the same.

• Show empathy – Take the time to understand your team’s challenges and wins. People work harder when they feel valued and heard.

• Listen actively – When someone shares an idea or concern, don’t just nod. Ask questions, offer feedback, and show them their input matters.

5. Normalize Failure as Part of the Creative Process

Not every new idea will turn into an implemented project, and that’s perfectly acceptable.

For the corporate, it is key to retire ideas early (exercising data-driven decision-making) to save opportunity cost.

If you create an environment where it is okay to make a mistake, you foster a culture where taking risks is encouraged rather than feared.

When employees know that failures won’t damage their reputations or jeopardize their careers, they feel empowered to experiment, think creatively, and push boundaries.

Failures can happen within the largest, most successful companies. Coca-Cola's introduction of "New Coke" in 1985 is a notable example.

In an attempt to revitalize its flagship product, Coca-Cola launched a new formula, but consumer backlash led to the return of the original recipe as "Coca-Cola Classic" within months.

Pro Tip:

The KICKBOX Intrapreneurship Program empowers employees to take ownership of their ideas without fear of failure while making the innovation process engaging and accessible through gamified elements.

Employees can easily track their progress and know exactly what steps to take next, making idea development more structured and efficient.

The best part? Anyone can contribute, regardless of their role, department, or experience level.

More than just generating ideas, KICKBOX prioritizes learning and personal growth. 

It fosters a growth mindset, encouraging employees to experiment, develop new skills, and gain confidence, even if their initial idea doesn’t take off.

6. Engage in Co-Creation with Customers

While listening to customers is important, co-creation takes it a step further, turning them into active contributors to your innovation process.

For example, LEGO's "LEGO Ideas" platform invites customers to submit designs for new LEGO sets. 

Once a design garners 10,000 supporters, it advances to the expert review phase. 

If selected, the design is produced and sold, with the original creator receiving a percentage of the royalties.

But how does this help to motivate your team?

When employees gain direct insights into what customers truly want, it sparks fresh ideas, guiding innovation in unexpected and exciting directions.

Receiving real-world feedback can ignite creative problem-solving, helping teams develop solutions that resonate and evolve with customer needs.

7. Clarify Ownership and Rights

When it comes to generating new ideas, it’s crucial to define clear ownership and rights. Employees must understand how their contributions are protected to be confident enough in sharing their ideas. Here’s how you can establish these guidelines effectively:

• Clear intellectual property (IP) policies – Develop and communicate well-defined IP policies that explain how ownership of ideas, inventions, and innovations is determined. Ensure all employees understand these policies to avoid confusion.

• Transparent rights allocation – Be upfront about how intellectual property rights are assigned. Employees should know whether the company retains full ownership, shares ownership, or allows individuals to keep their rights to an idea.

• Confidentiality protection – Require employees to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) when handling sensitive or confidential ideas to safeguard innovation efforts.

• Idea submission and tracking – Implement a structured process for employees to submit and track their ideas, such as digital platforms or submission forms. This helps document contributions and ensures transparency.

8. Set Up Your Office Space for Spontaneous Collaboration

Google’s campuses are often the first thing people think of when discussing innovative office design. 

They feature open seating arrangements, playful décor, and well-equipped common areas that foster spontaneous chats.

The ultimate goal isn’t fun for its own sake. It’s about building an environment where individuals from varied roles collide and spark conversations that might bloom into big ideas.

Here are 3 ideas to help you arrange your office space:

• Create idea alleyways – Designate specific pathways where employees frequently cross paths and add interactive boards, rotating discussion prompts, or digital displays showcasing ongoing projects.

  This turns casual strolls into opportunities for idea exchange.

• Add collab zones – Instead of static desks or traditional conference rooms, incorporate versatile spaces with modular seating that encourages casual group conversations.

  Movable whiteboards or touchscreen brainstorming stations can help teams capture spontaneous insights on the fly.

• Introduce themed connection days – Encourage employees to switch up their seating or pair with colleagues from different departments on designated days.

  This breaks routine interactions and fosters fresh perspectives, leading to unexpected and valuable collaborations.

Pro Tip:

You can organize regular brainstorming sessions and share ideas directly within the rready platform.

This allows your team to collaborate, suggest ideas, discuss, and provide feedback, all in one place. Integrating this into your workflow allows a continuous stream of innovation and enhances collaboration within your team.

For example, the AI Inspire Feature generates idea suggestions tailored to your company’s focus areas and user profiles.

Company admins can set specific themes and business needs for the AI to prioritize, ensuring relevant and strategic recommendations.

If users aren’t satisfied with the initial suggestion, they can easily regenerate new sets of ideas until they find the perfect fit.

9. Use (AI-)Tools That Free Up Time for Creativity

The right tools can streamline workflows, reduce micromanagement, and clarify tasks and deadlines, giving employees more mental energy for creative work.

Consider using:

• Project management platforms – Tools like Trello, Asana, or Monday.com help teams organize tasks and avoid endless email chains.

• Collaboration suites – Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace make it easier to communicate and share ideas seamlessly.

• Automated reporting systems – Zapier, Power BI, and Google Data Studio reduce repetitive administrative work and speed up data analysis.

• Innovation platforms – Platforms like rready, IdeaScale, or Spigit help organizations collect, evaluate, and implement innovative ideas from employees.

For example, Adobe, a leader in creative software, realized that employees were spending too much time on repetitive tasks like image editing and project management. 

To solve this, they introduced Adobe Sensei, an AI tool that automates design work, Adobe Workfront to streamline projects, and Firefly, a generative AI that speeds up content creation.

With fewer tedious tasks, Adobe’s teams had more time to focus on creativity and innovation. This shift led to groundbreaking features like Generative Fill in Photoshop and Firefly-powered AI tools, making design faster, easier, and more intuitive.

Pro Tip:

One of the best ways to encourage the creativity of employees is through ideation workshops. rready offers an AI-enhanced workshop where employees prompt around a problem and idea.

On the platform, employees can comment on ideas, bring fresh perspectives, and leave emojis, helping you easily identify the most promising ideas.

Additionally, in the Topics section, employees can find problems that are waiting for their ideas to solve them, encouraging proactive engagement and innovative thinking.

This interactive approach fosters collaboration and ensures the best concepts rise to the top.

Road to Real Change

All these strategies can create a culture of workplace innovation, but the truth is that results won’t appear overnight.

Knowing how to motivate employees to innovate is one thing, but real transformation takes time, persistence, and a willingness to navigate setbacks.

Along the way, you need to find the right balance between competing priorities:

• Collaboration vs. Individual Focus – While teamwork fuels creativity, some employees produce their best ideas when given space to think independently.

  Try to find the right balance so teamwork inspires new ideas without taking away the quiet time needed for deep thinking.

• Flat Structure vs. Strong Leadership – Reducing hierarchy can empower ideas to come from anywhere, but clear leadership is still essential to set priorities and make final decisions.

• Experimentation vs. Efficiency – Businesses must maintain smooth day-to-day operations, but an excessive focus on stability can stifle the breakthroughs that drive future success.

How Can rready Help You to Encourage Employee Innovation?

rready offers flexible AI-native innovation management solutions that enable organizations to generate, capture, refine, and execute ideas from start to finish.

Our three tailored solutions streamline the ideation process, foster collaboration, and boost engagement, equipping employees with the tools and support they need to bring their ideas to life.

These three solutions include:

• rready Idea Management,
• KICKBOX Intrapreneurship, and
• rready Innovation Management.

To enhance these solutions, rready integrates AI-powered features that optimize ideation, collaboration, and decision-making:

• Language-agnostic search & content translation – Enables users to search in their default language, with automatic translations making content easily accessible.

• AI Chatbot – Provides methodology support through a trained AI, assisting users throughout the ideation process.

• Similarity Search – Detects and suggests similar ideas, preventing duplication and fostering collaboration.

• AI-Generated Images – Creates idea profile images through AI to enhance visual representation.

Additionally, upcoming features like AI agents, BYO-AI, and AI-assisted feedback will further personalize and automate the innovation process, while long-term innovations like AI trend management and AI reporting aim to enhance strategic decision-making.

rready Idea Management

Managing ideas effectively can help your company save money, resources, and time. Inefficient processes and wasted resources can cost millions, which is why we provide a structured system for idea submission, evaluation, and implementation.

With our customizable idea submission forms and targeted campaigns, you can gather relevant information efficiently, ensuring the best ideas move forward.

It allows your employees to:

• Name and provide details about their ideas.
• Upload images or generate them using AI.
• Easily find and categorize ideas based on relevant topics.
• Add videos, attachments, links, feedback, and tags for a more comprehensive submission.
• Activate AI agents to refine, enhance, or rewrite idea descriptions for better clarity and impact.

Upon submission, the system utilizes AI to identify and display similar or potentially duplicate ideas, ensuring better organization and preventing redundancy.

KICKBOX Intrapreneurship

The KICKBOX intrapreneurship program gives your employees the tools, knowledge, and structure they need to explore and test new ideas. 

This empowers them to be more proactive and confident in sharing their innovations.

At the core of KICKBOX is the KICKBOOK, a hands-on guide that walks innovators through every step of the journey. 

Packed with tips, tools, and real-world advice, it helps employees turn their ideas into something tangible.

rready Innovation Management

Innovation Management combines Idea Management and KICKBOX Intrapreneurship to help you manage your entire innovation portfolio from start to finish.

Our platform offers more than just idea collection. It empowers you to:

• Simplify user management with Single Sign-On (SSO) and Active Directory integration for effortless security.

• Launch focused campaigns and directly source ideas on specific topics that align with your business goals.

• Set time frames for idea submissions, allowing employees to contribute their best insights when they matter most.

• Use bulk invitations to engage employees with challenges that match company strategy and their unique skills. Our AI-powered recommendations even deliver personalized idea suggestions straight to their inboxes.

Keep Learning

• 8 Corporate Innovation Best Practices You Should Know About
• 9 Innovation Management Frameworks You Should Know About
• 8 Best Corporate Innovation Tools To Consider in 2025