Turning excitement and interest around innovation into action

Jeffrey Phillips is with OVO in Raleigh, a presenting company at InnoVenture 2007, has a blog, Innovate on Purpose. A recent post discusses a problem we all face at one time or another: Turning interest into action

I suspect that many people agree that innovation is important, but are uncertain how to get started and how to determine and quantify the benefits.

There are several reasons for this:

1. Uncertainty around how to get started
2. Too much change and risk involved
3. People think innovation is a passing fad

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What's holding up your organization from becoming more innovative? Cultural issues? Fear of failure? Uncertain where to start? Here's a tip: start doing something, especially around defining a process for sustainable innovation. Start small and demonstrate some success, and the other stuff will work itself out. Don't stand on the sidelines waiting for the fad to pass, or for someone to give you the OK to proceed. This is one train you don't want to miss.