Test whether skills are lacking in your organization

The essence of innovation begins with people who look for insights and ideas. Lots of people have ideas but far fewer have the discipline to act on these ideas. There are many reasons for this. To start, consider these questions from a personal, team and organizational level. Reflect on how people manage ideas within your area of influence:

• Do people attend workshops and conferences, make notes and never look at them again?
• If people look at their notes, do they share their insights, ideas and learning results with others?
• Do your meetings last too long and produce too few new ideas?
• Are solutions to tough problems revisited because they were not strong enough the first time?
• Have you worked on a team that seemed to accomplish little despite lots of team building?
• Are you or others lacking in a sense of challenge despite a large workload?

All of these factors reflect a greater need for innovative thinking and a climate that is open to new ideas. Start with the basics. Do people know how to find and manage ideas? << back