How to get into the idea doing phase

Step 1: Empower your employees

Most employees will innovate if you give them the freedom to do so. Many organizations make the mistake of hiring experts and then limiting creativity and decision-making to a few senior people.

Atlassian allows employees 24 hours to work on anything they want and many progressive organizations follow similar models. The idea is that the employees can work on projects while the concepts are fresh - thereby also creating a sense of ownership and accountability. This will give intrapreneurs the impetus to follow through and take ideas to their logical outcomes.

Step 2: Do not judge too early

From an employee’s perspective, there is nothing worse than having a great idea shut down prematurely. As an employer, you must give an employee behind an idea enough time to analyze its feasibility, desirability, and viability. Once the data has been collected, you can then judge the idea (not the person). Otherwise, teams are always in the ideation phase, without ever moving beyond it.

Research also shows that 79% of employees quit because of a lack of appreciation. Giving them ownership and subsequently praising successes (if deserved), can transform company-wide response to the innovation management process and increase overall idea submission.

Step 3: Embrace the “day one” philosophy

In a letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos stated in 2016 that: “Staying in Day 1 requires you to experiment patiently, accept failures, plant seeds, protect saplings, and double down when you see customer delight”. While this is a simple concept, the fact remains that companies must continuously be proactive and experimental.

This constant curiosity creates a company-wide buy-in to innovation while ensuring that all employees are always on the look out for the next big idea. When combined with the right frameworks and innovation process, experimentation can continue without delay.

Step 4: Accept failure

Even the world’s most innovative companies experience innovation failures, and failure can be a stepping stone towards future success. Besides, early failures teach valuable lessons while simultaneously saving resources that could otherwise have been wasted on a moonshot project. 

Unfortunately, many employees fear failure and the repercussions that come from it. As an employer, creating psychological safety where employees appreciate the role of failure is vital. If nothing else, it enables them to acknowledge failure far sooner in the process.

Step 5: Try again

When a person enters the doing phase only to find that their idea didn’t work, they may refrain from re-entering the action phase at all. The key is to encourage them to try again with a new concept. After all, they now have more experience and knowledge.

An iterative approach is often needed for success. Whether an employee finds a new solution as a shoot-off from the old idea or works on something entirely new: it doesn’t matter. The fact that they have a new idea which they will analyze, will strengthen your team’s position.

Step 6: Give employees internal role models

A company-wide approach to innovation will yield more ideas. However, it’s not enough to simply make innovation accessible. The top organizations also bring in external and internal innovators who can inspire employees while also creating a sense of healthy competition.

When employees have people that they want to emulate or compete against, it will spark them into action. Innovators must be relatable and genuinely interested and involved in the idea execution process.

Step 7: Celebrate action

Finally, employees must know that they are allied to "go for it". Your encouragement to them to innovate will give them another incentive to do so. In addition to celebrating the big idea or success, you should acknowledge all creative and active steps that contributed to the journey.

Conversely, the correlation between burnout and reduced innovation is scientifically shown as well as anecdotally supported. Therefore, failing to give praise where it is due, can cause any momentum created by your innovation management process to be lost.