An excerpt from Change is Good…You Go First by Mac Anderson

Tomorrow comes at us with lightning speed, and your competitive advantage is a fleeting thing. As leaders, we must create an environment that puts innovation front and center. Your people must know it is the key to your company’s survival. You must create a climate that rewards risk and creative effort. Your people must not fear mistakes, but understand that honest mistakes can be life’s main source for learning. So teach them to fail quickly, and often, to enable them to reach the next plateau.

Far too many leaders consider innovation the business equivalent of football’s “Hail Mary” pass or the buzzer-beating three pointer in basketball. On rare occasions it might work, but “rare occasions”, and “might work” are not the foundation of effective innovation programs. Innovation requires a system, a culture, leadership, and an allocation of resources. Then it becomes a matter of discipline, commitment and determination.

Tom Peters gets it. He said…

“I’ve spent a good part of my life studying economic successes and failures. Above all, I’ve learned that everything takes a back seat to innovation.”