Driving Innovation: 15 Ways Leaders Spark Change in Their Business

Most organizations stop innovation in its tracks before it even gets started. For example, a risk-averse culture will never innovate; that’s a fact. How do you drive innovation? You start by eliminating what impedes it and by nurturing the right behaviors. Innovation is as much about attitude and perspective as it is about process. It’s the opposite of business as usual: messy, non-linear, and challenging.

But the rewards are worth it.

15 ways leaders drive innovation in their business

Here are 15 ways leaders can drive innovation in their business:

  1. Foster a culture of innovation: Culture matters. It sets everything in motion. Define your culture, align your team around it, and drive it every day. For example, Google fosters a culture of innovation by allowing employees to spend 20% of their time working on passion projects, which has led to major products like Gmail and Google News.
  2. Encourage calculated risk-taking: No risk, no reward. Innovation thrives where people feel empowered to take thoughtful risks without fear of punishment. A great example is Amazon, which encourages employees to experiment and take risks, even if it means failing. Amazon Prime was born from this culture of calculated risk-taking.
  3. Allocate resources for innovation projects: Ideas without support wither and die. Put time, money, and talent behind your team’s best ideas to help them flourish. 3M is famous for allocating resources to support innovation, giving their employees the freedom and funding to work on new ideas—which ultimately led to the invention of the Post-it Note.
  4. Implement cross-functional collaboration: Innovation happens when different perspectives collide. Break down silos and get teams from different disciplines working together. At Pixar, collaboration between artists, animators, and technical experts has been key to creating groundbreaking animated films.
  5. Establish innovation metrics and KPIs: You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Track your innovation efforts with relevant metrics that reflect both progress and outcomes. For instance, Microsoft uses metrics like the number of new ideas generated and the percentage of revenue from new products to measure their innovation success.
  6. Lead by example and champion new ideas: If you want your team to innovate, show them it’s okay. Be a vocal advocate for new ideas and initiatives. Elon Musk, for instance, is known for championing new ideas at Tesla and SpaceX, constantly pushing his teams to innovate and think beyond conventional boundaries.
  7. Invest in employee training and development: Growth fuels innovation. Give your team the tools they need to learn, grow, and think outside the box. Salesforce invests heavily in employee development through Trailhead, their online learning platform, to encourage continuous learning and skills growth.
  8. Create dedicated innovation teams or labs: Give your team space—literally and figuratively—to innovate. Dedicated teams or innovation labs can focus on exploring new ideas without the constraints of day-to-day operations. For example, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works is a dedicated innovation lab that has been responsible for some of the most groundbreaking aerospace technologies.
  9. Implement open innovation and external partnerships: You don’t have to do it all yourself. Look beyond your organization to find collaborators who can bring fresh insights and complementary strengths. Procter & Gamble’s Connect + Develop program is a great example of open innovation, allowing the company to partner with external innovators to co-develop new products.
  10. Embrace failure as a learning opportunity: Failure is an inevitable part of innovation. When something doesn’t work out, treat it as a chance to learn and improve. At SpaceX, every failure is analyzed in detail, and the lessons learned are used to make improvements. This approach has allowed them to rapidly iterate and innovate in the aerospace industry.
  11. Reward and recognize innovative efforts: People repeat behaviors that are recognized and rewarded. Celebrate not just successful innovations, but also the efforts that move your team forward. Atlassian, for instance, rewards employees for their innovative ideas during their ShipIt Days, a quarterly event where teams are encouraged to work on creative projects.
  12. Streamline decision-making processes: Long approval processes kill momentum. Simplify decision-making to keep innovation moving at a healthy pace. Netflix has streamlined its decision-making by empowering employees to make decisions without needing layers of approval, fostering a faster innovation cycle.
  13. Leverage emerging technologies: Stay curious about new technologies and consider how they could disrupt or enhance your business. For example, Domino’s leveraged emerging technologies like drones and AI to experiment with innovative ways to deliver pizzas, keeping them at the forefront of customer convenience.
  14. Conduct regular innovation audits: Take stock of what you’re doing to foster innovation. Are your efforts paying off? Where could you improve? Adobe conducts regular innovation audits through its Kickbox program, which provides employees with resources and a structured process to develop and evaluate new ideas.
  15. Encourage customer-centric innovation: Innovation should ultimately serve your customers. Engage with them, understand their pain points, and use those insights to guide your innovation efforts. LEGO, for example, engages with its customers through the LEGO Ideas platform, where fans can submit ideas for new sets and vote on their favorites, directly influencing product development.

Innovation doesn’t just happen—it needs leaders who actively support, champion and drive it. Start with these 15 ways to cultivate an environment where innovation can flourish, and watch your business transform.


Bottom line: To drive innovation eliminate what impedes it, and nurture and champion the behaviors that drive it.

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How Risk-Aversion Blocks Innovation