Innovation killer # 6: Hand over the good ideas to the Legal and Accounting departments.
Ideas are fragile, easily broken or squashed. On the surface, giving the care of those ideas to Legal or Accounting may make sense, since one of the greatest issues with inventions are legal ones. And there are financial considerations as well.
But those with the most influence over the idea process must be the innovation champions, and that emphasis must come from the top, says Koulopoulos.
Innovation tip: Create support and ownership for innovation at management's uppermost tiers.
#7: Be very, very afraid of failure.
Failure-tolerant management was the third most important ingredient in creating an innovative culture, according to CIO's innovation survey; it came in at 25 percent. There's a reason why this factor is so important.
No doubt you can build an iterative process and lessen the cost of a failure, says Koulopoulos, but the bottom line is the market is fickle and you can't predict what will happen.
Here's the scary truth: You will fail sometimes. Like a child learning to ride a bike, you simply cannot move ahead without taking a few knocks. The question is: Are you the kind of organization that can embrace innovation in spite of that?
Innovation tip: What doesn't work out is merely a learning experience and therefore fodder for the innovation cycle. Use case studies, research and other support to show naysayers why learning experiences are a must in today's corporate environment.
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