4. Workplace Innovation in Practice: Experiences from the UK

Workplace innovation is defined both by process and outcomes. It describes a participatory process of innovation leading to empowering workplace practices which, in turn, sustain continuing experimentation, learning, reflection and change. Workplace innovation is an inherently social process, building skills and competence through creative collaboration. It provides global concepts and practices as generative resources which organisational actors contextualise as ‘local theories’ to fit local circumstances. This chapter draws on UK experiences to demonstrate the nature of workplace innovation as a journey of learning and experimentation, one which can be stimulated and resourced by targeted support from policymakers. Lessons from these experiences relating to the design and implementation of future interventions are of wider relevance to enterprises, policymakers and other stakeholders internationally.