"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." - Alan Cohen

One of the most important things you can do when designing and building an innovative culture at your organization is to let go of the old and embrace the new.  Unless your organization has always been an innovation leader, it is going to take some change to move from the old toward the new.  I know...that dreaded "change" word again.  It is one of those things that is so much easier to say than actually accomplish.  But you can do it.

Changing your organizational culture to be more conducive to innovation isn't easy.  Just like anything else, if it was easy, everyone one would be doing it.  Since most people only pay lip service to innovation and don't really tackle the necessary culture changes that are required for success, you can have an incredible advantage if you are brave enough to take on the challenge.

So how do you foster the kind of change necessary for building an innovative culture?  Here are a few ideas:

• Involve your employees and management teams in the problems you face and the change you seek
• Develop a "This is what keeps me up at night" list to share with your employees
• Define the problem you are seeking to solve
• Share your vision for an innovative organization
  
• Demonstrate, through action, your expectation for calculated risk taking and failure
• Be willing to admit to your own failures publicly
• Find something to learn from your failure and teach it to others
• Celebrate some of the "learned failures" of your employees
• Make sure everyone in your organization understands that it is okay to have fun at work
• Your employees need to know its okay to have fun
• Even if the work climate is hectic, find ways to create ways to breaks in the action
• Take time to celebrate, recognize & reward
  
• Allocate time in the normal work week for "creative expression"
• Time devoted to thinking and idea refinement
• Time for building prototypes
• Time for collaboration
• Create a "system" that supports innovation
• Idea Management Processes
  
• Innovation Management Processes
• Anything that positively supports the new culture and/or discourages "old school" thinking
• Make sparks...conflict can lead to great ideas
• Encourage diversity of thought
• Support friendly debates or idea collisions
• Ensure that the conflict is professional and not personal
• Be the beacon of light through the change by remembering the four foundations of innovative leadership:
• Courage
  
• Perseverance
• Trust
• Faith

For some, change can be difficult, scary, hard and painful.  But it doesn't have to be that way.  Most people don't fear where they are now, nor do they fear the end result...they fear the unknown of the middle.   By sharing your plan for creating an innovation-driven organization, leading by example and walking through the change side-by-side with your employees, you'll reach your goal.  Good luck and let us know if we can help.

Have a GREAT week!!!