11 reasons your organization struggles to innovate

1. The only time you make an effort to seek new ideas is when you’re facing some kind of problem.
   
2. You decide whether an idea is good or not based who proposed it.
   
3. You think every idea is incomplete or bad until it has your input.
   
4. You ridicule new ideas when you think they’re bad.
   
5. Brainstorming is mainly about weeding out bad ideas, not generating lots of ideas.
   
6. You insist that all new ideas be proven.
   
7. You only want really big ideas. You pooh-pooh small improvements.
   
8. You don’t have a system for generating, collecting, fostering, or reviewing ideas.
   
9. Your only source of ideas is what others are doing.
   
10. Only outside consultants ever give you new ideas.
    
11. You never implement new ideas.
    

You might have noticed that these are largely aimed at bosses and leaders. That’s because they are typically the source of lack of innovation. But everyone can play a part in killing or fostering new ideas.