17 ways to foster innovation.
For many companies success has come down to the phrase “innovate or die.” Here's a useful list of steps to encourage innovation in the workplace, from the article, “The Heart of Innovation: 50 Ways to Foster a Culture of Innovation,” found at www.ideachampions.com/weblogs (and scroll down). If you like the article, check out the site www.ideachampions.com.

1. Remember that innovation requires no fixed rules or templates – only guiding principles. Creating a more innovative culture is an organic and creative act.
2. Wherever you can, whenever you can, always drive fear out of the workplace. Fear is “Public Enemy Number 1” of an innovative culture.
3. Have more fun. If you're not having fun (or at least enjoying the process) something is off.
4. Always question authority, especially the authority of your own longstanding beliefs.
5. Make new mistakes.
6. As far as the future is concerned, don't speculate on what might happen, but imagine what you can make happen.
7. Increase the visual stimuli of your organization's physical space. Replace gray and white walls with color. Add inspiring photos and art, especially visuals that inspire people to think differently. Reconfigure space whenever possible.
8. Help people broaden their perspective by creating diverse teams and rotating employees into new projects – especially ones they are fascinated by.
9. Ask questions about everything. After asking questions, ask different questions. After asking different questions, ask them in a different way.
10. Ensure a high level of personal freedom and trust. Provide more time for people to pursue new ideas and innovations.
11. Encourage everyone to communicate. Provide user-friendly systems to make this happen.
12. Instead of seeing creativity training as a way to pour knowledge into people's heads, see it as a way to grind new glasses for people so they can see the world in a different way.
13. Learn to tolerate ambiguity and cope with soft data. It is impossible to get all the facts about anything. “Not everything that counts can be counted. Not everything that can be counted counts,” said Einstein.
14. Embrace and celebrate failure. 50 to 70 percent of all new product innovations fail at even the most successful companies. The main difference between companies that succeed at innovation and those that don't isn't their rate of success – it's the fact that successful companies have a LOT of ideas, pilots, and product innovations in the pipeline.
15. Notice innovation efforts. Nurture them wherever they crop up. Reward them.
16. When you're promoting innovation in-house, always promote the benefits of a new idea or project, not the features.
17. Don't focus so much on taking risks, per se, but on taking the risks OUT of big and bold ideas.

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