How to Foster Innovation In
Your Organization
In their book, The Innovator’s DNA, authors Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen found that innovators share five characteristics. Innovators are:
- Associating
- Questioning
- Observing
- Networking
- Experimenting
Innovators have a mindset that is oriented toward change. When they see a product, service or business model, they imagine how it could be better. Best Practices for Uncovering Market Problems, “There’s just no substitute for talking to people.”
When conducting market research, Mace says, you need to focus on two things:
- Be sure you’re talking to people who are representative of your core customers.
- Make sure you’re using the right methodologies to gather information. That includes asking the right questions and being really careful about how you interpret the answers

The authors believe that innovative companies have the same characteristics as these individuals. These companies work to attract creative people and to give their employees space to innovate. To help people think innovatively, you can encourage them to:
- Talk to different people every day
- Take time to relax, so their brains can connect unrelated ideas
- Go to new places such as museums, parks and restaurants
- Create art or write a short story
- Listen to music
- Change their work schedule
One technique that companies can use to foster innovation is job swapping—moving employees between divisions or even between businesses. Employees who are working in a new area are less likely to have preconceptions or make assumptions. So, they can view the work processes, products and services with fresh eyes and bring new ideas to the team.
Embracing diversity can also encourage innovation. That’s because people who come from different backgrounds and who have different life experiences will view problems differently, and will generate different ideas about how to solve them.
Conversations with your customers can also be rich grounds for innovation. If you can, meet your customers where they use your product or services and observe their challenges. Customers can’t always recognize or conceptualize the ways you can help them. A quote attributed to Henry Ford drives home the point: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”
You can also encourage innovation by challenging your employees to come up with a solution to a specific challenge. For example, you could ask them how they would improve profitability, pull ahead of the competition or move into a new market. Asking these questions shows your employees that you value innovative thinking. You also can give your employees tools like brainstorming and mind-mapping, and the time to explore those tools, so they can focus on developing their ideas.