TAKE ACTION!

            1.    Be judicious: Just because you can do something new doesn’t mean you have to.

                       Ideas are good, and the more you have, the better! But choose carefully. At Toyota, each employee reportedly submits forty-eight new ideas from each employee every year, of which nine are adopted. This means thirty-nine are not adopted—and the employees still love the program because they know each idea is given a fair hearing.

            2.    Remember, your customer decides.

                       You probably think the shiny gimmick you’re adding to your product or service will wow your customers. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. At the end of the day, you need to let them decide. If they don’t like it, either figure out how to make them see the value (like P&G did with Febreze) or pull the plug.

            3.    Spark an organizational transformation to become an innovation leader.

                       Avoid the Potemkin village syndrome. Too many “innovation centers” or “idea labs” are nothing more than empty showplaces. Innovation is happening—and needs to be recognized and nurtured—in every corner of your organization.