GTP21: How Nowcomm have established a culture for innovation
Nowcomm
This blog post has been produced for the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce as part of the 2021 Growth Through People campaign.
Growth Through People is the Chamber’s annual campaign aiming to help local firms boost productivity and grow through improved leadership and people management skills. In 2021 this involves 8 free online workshops taking place throughout March, and a virtual Growth Through People conference on 30th March. In addition, throughout the campaign the Chambers will be publishing thought leadership podcasts, videos and blog content such as this.
Thanks to our Headline Sponsors – Aston University, BMet College and the University of Birmingham’s Work Inclusivity Research Centre - all workshops are free to attend. Interested readers can find out more and register to attend Growth Through People workshops here, and the Growth Through People conference here.
It’s said that the worst of times brings out the best in people; as it happens, this is true of organisations as well. As Managing Director at Nowcomm, I can’t claim that we always got it right when it comes to creating an environment for exuberant innovation. However, when being challenged by organisational changes and the pandemic, we found new ways to better communicate, engage and serve our customers. Today I will share with you a few examples of positive adjustments that helped Nowcomm establish a culture for innovation:
Open communication
As an entire Nowcomm team adjusted to working remotely, we quickly realised how important frequent communication is in avoiding the feeling of isolation and preserving the sense of belonging. We meet every morning for daily briefings with all cameras on and give everyone a chance to speak. In some ways seeing each other’s faces in home environment every day helped us develop sense of common purpose and shared identity which encouraged us to communicate more freely. The meetings not only increased our productivity but also allowed space to share ideas and provide feedback.
Supportive collaboration
Collaboration across teams is a vital part of Nowcomm’s innovation culture. Remote working only highlighted the importance of the right collaboration tools to empower our employees and customers. As one of only four Cisco Partners in the UK with Master Collaboration status, we were in perfect position to take full advantage of Cisco’s cloud telephony and collaboration solutions. We were able to provide a secure, collaborative and cohesive workplace that helped us achieve higher innovation levels and led to better productivity. The collaboration solution quickly became a mission-critical tool that facilitated all of our daily communication.
Embracing change
Welcoming change is a pivotal part of fostering an environment for innovation. Our team embraced the new technology and ideas with enthusiasm which allowed smooth transition to new way of working. Communication and training played a big part in that transition but even more important was allowing employees time to adapt to changes.
When you’re focusing on being innovative, there’s bound to be a few mistakes along the way. But if your employees are worried about the consequences of failure, they won’t feel confident enough to try out new things. At Nowcomm we view failure as a learning process and analyse mistakes as a team.
Overall, the new challenges posed by the pandemic are sharpening our skills and quickly teaching us the new ways of working and providing services. Cultural changes may not happen overnight but there are technologies that you can implement now to address your challenges and foster the culture of innovation.
Nowcomm are a team of technology experts in solution design, delivery and customer service. Our focus is high quality services and support, specialising in Enterprise Networking Infrastructure, Collaboration and Security. We are one of only four Cisco Partners in the UK to hold Cisco Gold and Master Collaboration status.
James Baly
Managing director
Nowcomm