How to Create a Culture of Innovation

By Peter McNulty

Innovative organizations are consistently able to do the following:

LISTEN

Members of an organization’s internal and external community often have tremendous insights and ideas that lead to new innovations.

STAY OPEN

Ideas don’t always come from experts. Sometimes the greatest innovations come from novices and backroom tinkers. Open-minded organizations often convert off-the-wall ideas into marketable products.

COLLABORATE

No organization holds all the cards in developing new innovation. Collaboration with outside groups--complementary corporations, universities, government agencies, and think tanks--often brings new perspectives and ideas to the innovation process.

GO FLAT

A flat management structure doesn’t have the long approval processes and disjointed lines of communications that impede innovation. Organizations that can’t go flat in management can achieve the same results by empowering workers to act independently.

EMBRACE FAILURE

Many of the greatest innovations’ leapfrogs were unintended results and, oftentimes, created by accident. Breakthroughs such as the discovery of penicillin or the power of microwaves were the result of accidents.

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