For startups, there can be a ton of pressure to continuously innovate. You are, after all, supposed to be breaking all the rules, moving fast, and changing the world.

As is the case with any organisation, however, startups can sometimes fall into an innovation rut.

Every idea seems like a non-starter, people’s energy starts to flag, and the successes that once seemed inevitable, now seem impossible.

Fortunately, this state doesn’t have to be permanent. With the right strategic initiatives in place, your startup can unlock innovation and get back to changing the world in no time.

Go back to basics

Whether your startup hits its innovation rut during a period of high growth or in its very early phases, it may well be down to you getting caught up in the day to day processes of your business.

The important thing at this stage is to go back to basics. Bring your founding team back together and remind yourselves why you started this thing in the first place.

Cut any projects that deviate from that mission and concentrate all your resources on the stuff that matters.

Now we’re not saying you should decamp to the garage you started out in, but by reducing the complexity within your organisation, you’ll help focus everyone’s minds, making innovation much more likely.

Give everyone a little time and space

Have you ever spent hour after frustrating hour trying to solve a problem only to come up with the solution when you give up and go for a walk or cook dinner?

The same can be true when it comes to your startup, just on a bigger scale.

Counter-intuitive as it might seem, you can unlock innovation by taking your team out of the office from time to time.

Whether that takes the form of a specific team-building activity, a charity-centric event your team can volunteer at, or even just a lunch-time kickabout with a football, this time out gives everyone a chance to clear their heads.

As long as you don’t put pressure on anyone to come up with something during the activity, you should have some innovative ideas coming your way in no time.

Bring in outside help

Much as you’d like your team to be able to solve any problem your startup encounters, they will occasionally come up against something that completely stumps them.

This is the point at which many organisations will bring in outside help, hoping that they can see something everyone else can’t.

It is, however, worth occasionally bringing in outsiders even when you’re not faced with an immediate problem.

As long as they’re people you can trust, they can look at everything you’re doing with fresh eyes and spark fresh ways of thinking.

Work on execution

Innovation isn’t all about coming up with grand ideas to solve a problem. Sometimes it’s about taking a microscopic look at the methods you use to execute those ideas.

In fact, there are many who say that that innovation is far more about execution than the idea itself.
So, if what you’re doing right now isn’t working, try doing things differently for a while. Don’t get precious about methods of doing things.

Remember failure and the lessons you learn from it are crucial to innovation. Keep experimenting and documenting the lessons you’ve learned and something will stick.

For help implementing these initiatives, contact us here at Innoway. We’ll help you put them into practice and unlock innovation within your organisation.