Table of contents
Table of contents
How to create a culture of innovation in the workplace
Summary
In this guide, you will learn:
What culture of innovation actually means, and how to create one
What are the common obstacles to innovation
Who needs to support a culture of innovation
How Miro helps you create a culture of innovation
Innovation is one of those buzzwords that’s easy to talk about but far harder to put into practice. Many teams struggle with idea silos, fear of failure, and the friction of turning creativity into action. Without a culture of innovation that supports experimentation, your best ideas may never see the light of day.
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A short intro to workplace innovation
Innovation is a key factor in the success of any business. But how can you create a culture of innovation in the workplace? It's not as hard as it may seem.
Let’s take AI as an example. The advent of this technology has made innovation quicker and easier for thousands of use cases, but many businesses still aren’t innovating.
A Miro study found that 61% of workers are excited or energized by AI, so the momentum is there, but putting it into practice is still stalling.
What is innovation?
Innovation is the process of introducing new and improved ideas, methods, products, or services to the market. It is a critical factor for success in any business, and can:
Increase profits
Better customer relationships
Improve brand experience
However, it also involves taking risks and thinking outside the box to develop fresh ideas that can be implemented quickly and effectively.
Why is innovation important?
Businesses that want to remain competitive and stay ahead of their competitors must adopt a culture of innovation. It allows them to improve their products or services while fostering creativity and driving growth. Also, innovative businesses are more likely to:
Attract top talent
Make better decisions
Increase customer loyalty
Develop strategies to help them stand out.
For companies to remain competitive, they must continually innovate to keep up with changing customer needs and emerging technologies.
Innovative companies often focus on developing processes that enable continuous improvement while maintaining high-quality control levels. They focus on improving what already works. Then, they create new offerings that meet changing customer needs or solve problems people haven’t yet imagined.
By investing in research and development activities such as market surveys or focus groups, companies can gain valuable insights into what customers want. The result? The ability to develop innovative solutions tailored to these identified needs.
Innovation is essential for any business wanting long-term success.; iIt increases efficiency, drives growth, improves customer loyalty, and enables companies to stay ahead of the competition.
Companies should strive not only for short-term gains. They should also invest in long-term strategies that will continue delivering value even after initial investments. Finally, this leads to sustained success over time through continual innovation initiatives.
What are the main barriers to innovative cultures?
Even teams with the best intentions can struggle to build and sustain a truly innovative culture. The barriers are rarely about talent and are more focused on the environment, structure, and mindset. Understanding these challenges is the first step to overcoming them.
The main barriers to innovation in the workplace include:
Fear of failure
Siloed communication
Lack of time and resources
Resistance to change
No clear vision or goals
To overcome these barriers, organizations must implement effective processes.
First, failure should be viewed as a learning experience where employees feel safe sharing ideas without judgment. Or, seen as a way to try new things that may not work.
Next, creating shared spaces and collaborative environments can help teams bridge the gap between great ideas and siloed communication.
Time matters too. Look for solutions that save effort and accelerate innovation, such as templating key processes or setting aside dedicated time for ideation.
Finally, ensuring that your teams have a shared vision on why innovation matters and what drives it forward is key. Keep everyone on the same page with shared resources, strategy frameworks, and OKR templates to keep every initiative connected to real business outcomes.
Creating a culture of innovation in the workplace: A step-by-step guide
Creating a culture of innovation in the workplace is essential for any business that wants to stay ahead of the competition and keep growing.
It's not just about having the latest technology. You also want to foster an environment where employees are encouraged to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to bring innovation to your workplace with Miro:
1. Create a shared workspace
The first step in creating an innovative workplace is creating a central hub. Here, team members can brainstorm ideas without limitations or restrictions.
With Miro, you can use the drag-and-drop feature, custom boards with sticky notes, images, videos, and more to make this process quicker and more efficient.
Plus, a shared workspace makes collaboration easier, since everyone has access to the same workspace. Your team can all work on the same board, sharing ideas and gathering insights that can be shared in both real time and asynchronously.
2. Gather feedback
Once you have created your board, it's time to start gathering feedback from team members. With comments, you can get instant feedback from anyone invited to collaborate on the board. This allows them to suggest improvements or new ideas and provide valuable insights into existing ones.
Miro AI also takes your feedback a step further. Instead of manually sorting through dozens of comments or sticky notes, Miro AI can quickly summarize input, group similar ideas, and highlight recurring themes.
It can even generate draft action items or next steps, helping your team move from insight to execution much faster.
3. Develop prototypes
After collecting feedback from team members, it's time to prototype and test out potential solutions before implementing them. With Miro's built-in wireframing tools, teams can create interactive prototypes that help visualize ideas faster than ever without writing any code—making it ideal for agile development environments where quick iterations are essential for success.
4 . Execute plans
Once you have finalized your prototype design, it's time for execution with real data analysis and user testing sessions designed specifically for each project goal identified during earlier brainstorming sessions.
With Miro’s built-in project management tools, such as Kanban boards and timeline planning tools like roadmapping tools, teams can track progress in real time. This ensures everyone stays updated throughout the process, helping them make informed decisions when needed.
5 . Share results
Last but not least, once you have executed all of your plans, it's important to analyze data gathered during user testing sessions so that you can measure success rates. And finally, once everything is done, remember to share results with everyone involved so they know exactly what worked best and why. By doing this, you'll foster a learning environment based on transparency, which will ultimately help drive innovation within your organization even further.
Who should be involved in creating a culture of innovation?
Creating a culture of innovation isn’t the job of one department or a single visionary leader. It’s a shared responsibility that spans every level of an organization, and should include:
Leadership and executives
Managers and team leads
Cross-functional teams
HR and learning teams
Individual contributors
Innovation culture is a complete shift to a new way of working. And when everyone participates, it becomes woven into how the business thinks, communicates, and solves problems. With Miro, everyone can align on strategy, collaborate efficiently, and sustain a culture of innovation that grows stronger with every project.
Next steps: How to keep innovating?
Keeping that momentum going is important once you've created a culture of innovation in the workplace. To ensure that your team remains creative and productive, there are a few key steps you can take:
Set clear goals for each project
Give your team concrete objectives to work towards and measure progress. This will help ensure that ideas are brought to life in a timely manner and that everyone is working towards the same goal.
Provide ongoing feedback on projects
Make sure everyone on the team feels heard and valued by providing regular feedback throughout the process. This will help foster an open-minded environment where people feel comfortable sharing their ideas without fear of criticism or judgment.
Encourage collaboration among teams and departments
Encourage cross-team dialogue and collaboration so that different perspectives can be heard. Having multiple points of view can help surface new ideas that wouldn't have been considered otherwise. It also helps build relationships between teams, leading to better communication down the road.
And, celebrate successes! Make sure you recognize when someone comes up with a great idea or puts in extra effort to make something happen. Acknowledging accomplishments will help motivate others to come up with innovative solutions and reinforce a positive atmosphere where success is celebrated instead of discouraged or ignored.
By following these steps, businesses can create an environment where employees feel empowered to be creative and develop innovative solutions quickly and efficiently – helping them stay ahead of the competition while increasing productivity simultaneously.
What are some examples of innovation in the workplace?
Innovation isn’t just about big moonshots - it’s also about how teams rethink workflows, tools, and collaboration to move faster and smarter. Here are some real-world examples of companies using Miro to foster innovation.
Xero
Facing inconsistent ways of describing customer interactions across teams, Xero adopted Miro to centralize how it models customer journeys and align cross-functional teams. By doing so, they reduced duplication and accelerated innovation across product lines.
PepsiCo
PepsiCo reduced product launch timelines from around three years to just 10 months by unifying ideation, prioritization, and execution in Miro. Their global design teams now collaborate continuously on a shared innovation canvas.
Guidewire
By deploying Miro across the enterprise, Guidewire has embedded customer-centric design thinking into its culture. Their UX and product teams used Miro for everything from ideation to prototyping, making it their everyday tool for innovating new features and processes.
Create a culture of innovation with Miro
By following these steps, businesses can create an environment where employees feel empowered to be creative and develop innovative solutions quickly and efficiently. And with Miro, it’s easier than ever to stay ahead of the competition while increasing productivity simultaneously.
Start building your culture of innovation today. Try Miro for free and bring your people, ideas, and strategy together in one collaborative platform.
Workplace innovation FAQs
How long does it take to build a culture of innovation?
There’s no fixed timeline for innovation— it depends on the size of your organization, its structure, and readiness for change. Some teams start seeing results in a few months, while others take longer to embed innovation into their workflows. The key is consistency.
How can leadership support innovation effectively?
Leaders play a critical role in shaping innovation culture. They can set the vision, allocate resources, and create safety so employees feel confident in sharing ideas. In Miro, leaders can host strategy sessions, visualize innovation goals, and use Miro AI to summarize insights or track innovation metrics.
How do you measure innovation within a team or organization?
Innovation can be measured through both quantitative and qualitative indicators. These include the number of new ideas generated, projects tested, improvements implemented, or time saved through creative problem-solving.
Can Miro be used for innovation workshops and design sprints?
Absolutely. Miro offers ready-made templates for design sprints, ideation workshops, and innovation roadmaps, making it easy to plan and run creative sessions. You can use tools like timers, voting, and breakout areas to structure collaboration and keep energy high, whether you’re working in-person or remotely.
Author: Miro Team
Last update: November 10, 2025
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