Innovation Killers: What Not to Do

Can you tell I am passionate about innovation? I really enjoy discussing the topic with you, my LinkedIn community, and appreciate the feedback I’ve received from you. So far, I’ve covered the importance of creating a company culture of innovation, as well as the best ways to identify your innovation talent pool. There are a lot of dos when it comes to encouraging innovation. In this post, I want to talk about the don’ts—what a leader should not do, to avoid killing the innovation culture.

Let’s face it: Your leadership style can make or break innovation. Here’s a quick test. Ask yourself how many of the below questions apply to you. Be honest!

• Are you skeptical of others’ ideas or prone to dismissing them offhand?
• Are you more likely to identify the ways an idea won’t work rather than remain open to exploring its possibilities?
• Do you ask for new ideas but rarely act on them? 

If you answered yes to even one of these questions, you might be (unintentionally) killing innovation at your company. Think about it. If you regularly shoot down or shelve ideas, people will stop coming to you with ideas. While it's not possible to act on every idea that is submitted, it is important to at least provide feedback.

Make it clear that the time and effort that your colleagues spend on their ideas is not in vain and that you appreciate their work. This is especially the case if your reason for not moving forward with an idea has nothing to do with the idea itself, but rather an external factor such as lack of resources or bad strategic fit. Providing feedback reinforces that you respect your colleagues’ ideas and appreciate their efforts. Most importantly, it helps ensure that they won't stop offering new ideas.

Some companies have become famous for providing employees with some free time in which they can do more creative things. This is not only great for morale, but an easy way to encourage innovation. Give your employees the time to experiment with new technologies, explore new ways of doing things or discuss new ideas with others. It’s a model that can be emulated across industries by business leaders. In addition to providing time, it is also helpful to provide resources. For example, I try to find ways I can send someone interested in a new technology to attend a relevant conference or training session that will help them both network and learn new areas.

Another common innovation killer is confusing people with conflicting messages—for example, asking people to spend time coming up with new ideas, while at the same time pushing them to focus on short-term objectives. Confusion can breed inaction. Pretty soon, employees stop developing new ideas in favor of playing it safe by focusing on short-term goals and quick wins. After all, the former is vague, while the latter produces measurable and discernable results. When it comes time for reviews, which will better demonstrate an employee’s productivity?

Innovation killers can be subtle, and their effects might not be felt until it is too late. I hope that my examples can help you identify things that might negatively influence your organization’s innovation culture—and turn those don’ts into dos.

?What are some of your innovation killers? I’d love to hear your thoughts.