For example, 3M has a goal to derive 30% of revenues from products less than 4 years old. Research staff spend 15% of their time on projects of their choice. They are encouraged to mingle with customers, take risks and champion ideas. Out of this culture have come the famous Post-it notes and other very profitable products.

However, innovation is not the same as creativity. Creativity is an individual process. Everyone is capable of coming up with good ideas. Innovation, on the other hand, is a group process. Innovation results from bringing together the experience, skills, and wisdom of a group to convert good ideas into tangible products, services or processes.

It takes the technique of brain-storming to a much higher level---that of focusing the group's efforts to solve a specific problem or take advantage of an opportunity or improve performance. So how does a manager or team leader cultivate innovation in their organization? What can be done to take, for example, an idea for a painting and actually come up with the painting itself?

Here are a baker’s dozen strategies to build your team, department or your business innovative muscles.

1. Establish brain trusts or innovation teams comprised of management, operations, customer service and other groups to openly explore problems and come up with solutions. Teach people specific creative thinking an problem-solving techniques.
2. Go out and get information directly from your customers. Bring them together to evaluate your existing products and services in terms of their current value and potential value.
3. Actively seek out, encourage, and reward innovation in your employees by having contests, special days, open office areas for brainstorming, etc.
4. Sponsor in house trade show where employees share ‘how I did it’ stories on recent work accomplishments.
5. Schedule regular meetings, open to all employees at all levels, to discuss issues and solicit ideas.
6. Encourage the Edison factor---let people know it's OK to fail. Edison conducted 9000 experiments before developing a working light bulb. The important thing to emphasize is what is learned from a failure.
7. Provide ways in which innovative ideas are transmitted to decision makers for feedback and implementation similar to what General Electric does in its "work out ses
   Entrepreneurs Understand the Information Provided about an Opportunity
   number seven in a series taken from:How to Evaluate and Profit from a Business Opportunity - The Entrepreneur's GuideWhen you start looking at an opportunity you will begin accumulating information about the business. Some of the information may be provided by the seller, some by the seller's agent if there is one, some from the industry's association, some from other research you do, some from competitors and customers, and some from employees.Besides the hard fact
   p>However, innovation is not the same as creativity. Creativity is an individual process. Everyone is capable of coming up with good ideas. Innovation, on the other hand, is a group process. Innovation results from bringing together the experience, skills, and wisdom of a group to convert good ideas into tangible products, services or processes.

   It takes the technique of brain-storming to a much higher level---that of focusing the group's efforts to solve a specific problem or take advantage of an opportunity or improve performance. So how does a manager or team leader cultivate innovation in their organization? What can be done to take, for example, an idea for a painting and actually come up with the painting itself?

   Here are a baker’s dozen strategies to build your team, department or your business innovative muscles.

   1. Establish brain trusts or innovation teams comprised of management, operations, customer service and other groups to openly explore problems and come up with solutions. Teach people specific creative thinking an problem-solving techniques.
   2. Go out and get information directly from your customers. Bring them together to evaluate your existing products and services in terms of their current value and potential value.
   3. Actively seek out, encourage, and reward innovation in your employees by having contests, special days, open office areas for brainstorming, etc.
   4. Sponsor in house trade show where employees share ‘how I did it’ stories on recent work accomplishments.
   5. Schedule regular meetings, open to all employees at all levels, to discuss issues and solicit ideas.
   6. Encourage the Edison factor---let people know it's OK to fail. Edison conducted 9000 experiments before developing a working light bulb. The important thing to emphasize is what is learned from a failure.
   7. Provide ways in which innovative ideas are transmitted to decision makers for feedback and implementation similar to what General Electric does in its "work out se
      Recruiters: The Challenges of Executive Head Hunters
      Once upon a time, head hunters were no more than common cannibals. Some people still view them that way, but executive recruiters are a vital link in a chain that keeps major enterprises functioning well. The top positions at any organization dictate the fortunes of the company, the shareholders and the employees ... and often the communities in which they are located. A good executive head hunter can ensure that new company executives have the skills required for the posit
      unity or improve performance. So how does a manager or team leader cultivate innovation in their organization? What can be done to take, for example, an idea for a painting and actually come up with the painting itself?

      Here are a baker’s dozen strategies to build your team, department or your business innovative muscles.

      1. Establish brain trusts or innovation teams comprised of management, operations, customer service and other groups to openly explore problems and come up with solutions. Teach people specific creative thinking an problem-solving techniques.
      2. Go out and get information directly from your customers. Bring them together to evaluate your existing products and services in terms of their current value and potential value.
      3. Actively seek out, encourage, and reward innovation in your employees by having contests, special days, open office areas for brainstorming, etc.
      4. Sponsor in house trade show where employees share ‘how I did it’ stories on recent work accomplishments.
      5. Schedule regular meetings, open to all employees at all levels, to discuss issues and solicit ideas.
      6. Encourage the Edison factor---let people know it's OK to fail. Edison conducted 9000 experiments before developing a working light bulb. The important thing to emphasize is what is learned from a failure.
      7. Provide ways in which innovative ideas are transmitted to decision makers for feedback and implementation similar to what General Electric does in its "work out se
         Living With Looseness
         Neither creativity itself nor the issues that demand creativity are tidy or controlled. To handle this, you need a mental framework that is forgiving of a necessary degree of confusion, ambiguity, uncertainty or contradiction, providing, of course, that a sufficient core of structure can be extracted from it to allow your activities to proceed.There are five main areas of ambiguity that managers find particularly troublesome: Where the significance and reliability of i
         each people specific creative thinking an problem-solving techniques.
      8. Go out and get information directly from your customers. Bring them together to evaluate your existing products and services in terms of their current value and potential value.
      9. Actively seek out, encourage, and reward innovation in your employees by having contests, special days, open office areas for brainstorming, etc.
      10. Sponsor in house trade show where employees share ‘how I did it’ stories on recent work accomplishments.
      11. Schedule regular meetings, open to all employees at all levels, to discuss issues and solicit ideas.
      12. Encourage the Edison factor---let people know it's OK to fail. Edison conducted 9000 experiments before developing a working light bulb. The important thing to emphasize is what is learned from a failure.
      13. Provide ways in which innovative ideas are transmitted to decision makers for feedback and implementation similar to what General Electric does in its "work out se
          Is Your Career Your Calling or Just a 9 to 5?
          Do you remember your parents asking you what you want to be when you grow up? By the time I was in the 9th grade, my mother started asking me that same question until I graduated from high school. At that time I wasn’t 100% sure what career path I would take, but I had several ideas.Your calling is that passion that you have deep inside – the career that defines your purpose in life. Someone once told me if you find a job that you love you’ll never have to work a day in your li
          plishments.
      14. Schedule regular meetings, open to all employees at all levels, to discuss issues and solicit ideas.
      15. Encourage the Edison factor---let people know it's OK to fail. Edison conducted 9000 experiments before developing a working light bulb. The important thing to emphasize is what is learned from a failure.
      16. Provide ways in which innovative ideas are transmitted to decision makers for feedback and implementation similar to what General Electric does in its "work out sessions".
      17. Have a creative corner or special area stocked with books, videos, learning games for people to engage in creative thinking on their own and company time.
      18. Ask people to focus their creative thinking each month on a specific issue. Recognize and reward all ideas that are submitted. Follow-up with what is being down with the ideas.
      19. Recognize the person or group each quarter that has made a significant contribution or solutions to important issues.
      20. Use daily reminders such as desk calendars, handouts, computer messages or posters that will nudge people to be more innovative.
      21. Bring people together regularly just to think and talk about issues and ideas. When people are relaxed, the vast mental resources of their subconscious can be put to work.
      22. Create a learning environment that recognizes and rewards ‘out of the box’ thinking and acting. On an operational level, this means constantly encouraging risk taking and innovation and tolerating mistakes and false starts.

      Are some of these strategies already being done in your organization? Or does your team or department need to strengthen their innovation muscle? Which can they start doing right now? Start tapping the innovative spirit of your team, staff and even your customers.