Don’t let the Pandemic Pause Your Innovation Culture

Recognition is key to having a strong culture of appreciation, mutual support and compassion. This year, 2020, has certainly been a year of turmoil and upheaval in our workspaces and our usual processes. Many of us have had to work-from-home, and those of us who are able to return to our “regular” workspaces are finding that they aren’t very regular at all. The dangers and fears of the pandemic are still with us, and the need/desire for support and care are also amplified. Reassuring ourselves and our workmates on a deep level is important to the wellbeing of us all and the well-being of our companies and our economy.

As our workspaces and our methods of getting work done are changing and transitioning, whether permanently or temporarily (most of us hope so). Having a remote workforce, or a workforce returning to work with physicaldistancing, means that the face of recognition may be changing also. Most likely the role of recognition in maintaining your innovation ecosystem is very important for your future and will look different!

Patenting processes continue at the USPTO, albeit with different structures. Intellectual property in the pipeline, valuable knowledge that your legal team works to protect for your business will continue on its way. Your inventors are still innovating.

It is clear that remote-work and physical-distancing are having an effect on mental health, recognition can help by making your innovators feel more appreciated and thus more satisfied and content.

So, how can you continue with your recognition program? Or, how can you change your recognition program to meet the restrictions in our world today?

• 1. Use Technology to Your Advantage
  
  Don’t let remote-work and physical-distancing bring your innovation recognition program or practices to a screeching halt. You are most likely conducting 1-on-1 and Team meetings via Zoom, Microsoft Teams or some other meeting platform. Make sure that recognition is part of those meetings! Call out [recognize? Mention?] your innovators who have achieved goals or mileposts recently. Encourage others to continue recognition of their team members away from the meeting through emails, phone calls, instant messages, and video chats.


• 2. Strengthen Your Innovation Culture
  
  Continue your inventor recognition program, it has a purpose, to strengthen your innovation culture. When the Covid-19 pandemic began, most of us thought the work-from-home culture would be done in a few months and we’d return to the old normal. The reality is for most of us, how we work and where we work, will be impacted for some time to come. Recognition is most effective when it is timely, awards can easily be sent directly to your inventors’ homes – then you can have them open the award during the “small-talk” before getting down to business and recognize their accomplishment as a group.


• 3. Don’t Wait for the “New Normal”
  
  Don’t put off planning any larger dinners or gatherings you might hold to recognize innovation, maybe you need to change them. You could host virtual events and avoid the disappointment and disengagement that cancelling these events might cause. Give your inventors something to celebrate and look forward to. There is a plethora of information online on hosting virtual event and tons of technology and ideas to support the idea. You are only limited by your imagination when it comes to what can be done.

During these trying times, employees and their companies are seeing significant changes and facing new challenges. We hope we can help our clients and their organizations to the best of our abilities. Let’s ensure that recognition of world-changing innovation continues to move ahead when everything else seems to be in “pausemode.” Keep your recognition going, continue strengthening your innovation culture, and most importantly, stay safe.