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To ensure a strong Innovation Mandate, make these Six Commitments:

            1.    Time.

                       Your employees need the time to experiment and brainstorm new solutions. Whether it’s on a fixed schedule or built into the day, consider their time spent innovating as an investment in your organization’s future.

            2.    Finances.

                       To start and stay consistent, earmark a line in your budget for the support of innovation. Keep it there even during lean times, because that’s when you need it most.

            3.    Acumen.

                       Your employees need to be the best and the brightest. Promote and facilitate lifelong learning, make sound business decisions, and the return on investment will be significant.

            4.    Spirit.

                       The companies with the lowest rate of employee turnover also have the highest employee-engagement rates and are seen as being happy places to work. People who are unhappy or bored are not innovative. Keep spirits high by making the emotional connections everyone wants yet can’t always find.

            5.    Resources.

                       As the leader, you need to provide the time, the money, and the resources to create a sustainable culture of innovation. Resources include the physical space and the necessary equipment.

            6.    Imagination.

                       Many conventional problems are solved by asking, “Could we make this existing process incrementally better?” There’s nothing wrong with that! But for real innovation, it works better to imagine a perfect world, and then ask, “How would we create our solution? What would it look like?”

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