In the famous words of Albert Einstein, “creativity is contagious, pass it on.” So the question becomes how can you spread creativity within your company? Is it possible to inspire others to find their own sense of creativity and drive innovations within a tech company in an industry best known for being ever-changing? 

At the highest level, our mission at Text In Church has been to find creative and simple ways to help people connect with their communities through technology. To keep up in our industry, we’ve found ways to harness the creativity of our teams and use it to empower our employees to invest in our company.

Every member of your team has their own talents, their own uniqueness, and their own ingenuity. What’s proven powerful for our company is giving our people opportunities for their voice to be heard. 

Humans, at our core, want to be a part of something bigger. We want to evoke change. We want to use our voice and share our ideas in a space where we feel supported and valued. It can be hard to know if and when to speak up, where to share an idea, and most importantly, how to bring an idea to life. This was the intentionality with which our annual PitchFest was born. 

At PitchFest, every employee, regardless of their level or position, has the opportunity to share innovative ideas. Dreaming big and thinking outside the box are absolute musts. We’ve found the best ideas come from unusual places or from team members who don’t have a day-to-day role in making their idea a reality. PitchFest ideas have included new products, app revamps, new markets, starting new processes, stopping current processes, and exploring volunteer opportunities. 

Specific times should be scheduled for team members to share their ideas in a group setting. Each of your employees doesn’t just have a voice, but one specific to who they are as an individual. Don’t miss out on the chance to hear from all of your employees. Including your entire team in this process or a good cross-section of people from different departments allows for creativity, analysis, and iterating to turn good ideas into brilliant ones. 

We’ve designed our PitchFest to happen each year at our annual staff retreat. We are able to include every employee in this event. But, this may not be feasible for your company. 

The intention is to create a comfortable place where your team members come together not only to celebrate your wins and process your losses from the previous year, but to make big goals for the future. It should be a time where you build relationships with one another and have fun together! Find ways to clarify and embody your company’s core values.

This environment is intended to set the tone for your company culture of trust, respect, and inclusivity by reminding every person of how supported they are in this safe place. 

Once you’ve created this space and have allowed your team members to share in this PitchFest concept, give the presenter the ability to perfect their ideas by answering clarifying questions from the rest of the team. Also, allow them to hear honest feedback from anyone in the company. 

With any idea, it’s important to have the chance to advocate and establish clarity for the vision and refine the idea. In this safe space, everyone’s opinions are valued. But, your employees should also be challenged to grow and think through their ideas more deeply. The objective is growth for your company. But, this is also an opportunity to invest in the growth, engagement, and development of your employees.

Our annual Pitchfest has quickly become a staff favorite at Text In Church and has continued to strengthen the growth of our company year after year. We have heard some amazing ideas from people at every level and department in our organization. More importantly, those amazing ideas have turned into implemented plans.

We have developed an online church tech conference boasting more than 25,000 attendees each year. We launched our texting platform into a new fitness space. We’ve even found unique ways to give back to our local communities. 

We’ve found the best way to grow as a company by driving innovations is to make the time for your team to dream big, create impact, and prioritize people. “Creativity is contagious, pass it on.”