In a survey in 2010, IBM asked 1500 CEOs to name their most important leadership characteristics.  Creativity came out top.  More forward a few years, and Chief Execs are looking to ‘innovation’ even more to help them maintain and build their competitive advantage.  Be it in banking, pharma, technology, retail, law – even insurance; innovation has never been so important.  But how do you unlock the potential for innovation in your people?

Outcomes – be clear about what you want to achieve – and how you are going to measure it.  Is it simply about engagement?  If so, what does that mean?  Or do you want to produce real business innovations?  Okay, so how will you judge them and take them forward – and is there the investment to make that happen?

Strategy – set out a strategy to get you to your goals with defined stakeholders and project team, milestones and investment.  That investment may just be ‘time’; but it’s important to be clear about the investment involved – and the return on it.

Leadership – leaders don’t need to be involved in everything; but if they are expected to be involved, how?  Promotion or participation?  Be realistic about participation; it simply may be that some of your leaders will be more engaged than others.

Work Out Loud – I love this concept, and it shows trust in your people, and it allows everyone to contribute.

Segmentation – different people learn and contribute in different ways.  Scientists, for example, don’t like to be challenged; but could be keen to participate if they are intellectually engaged.  Equally engineers want to talk to engineers.  Whereas in Retail, it might be appropriate for everyone to collaborate and innovate as one big group.

Innovation Pipeline – if you are looking for innovations (big or small), look at how you can filter the innovations to focus on the best.  Then put project teams on them that will drive the innovations forward and deliver something tangible.

Simplify – if it’s too complex, it’s likely to fail.  Simplify the process, always.

The last thing to accept is that don’t expect to find that innovation tomorrow; it will take time.  Often longer than the business wants; but it will be worth it in the end.