Thinking About Innovation

I've been doing a lot of thinking about “getting it right” in the New Year—and what that means.  

I believe that one aspect has a lot to do with innovative thinking and how it is approached.  For one, it means an agile culture, in which many different types of people are welcome and there is lots of cross-fertilization among different age and specialty groups.   It is a culture where people are allowed to take risks.  It even invites people to take measured risks.   It is an environment where leadership offers suggestions (rather than commands) about how to get things done. 

Innovation needs to be managed, as it shouldn’t be a free-for-all.  Perhaps there is an innovation committee.  Thus, management overtly values and subtly drives innovative thinking among the people. 

In summary, innovation, to a great degree, amounts to this:   if you think you can or you think you can't, you are right.