Five Ways to Stop Middle Management Blocking Innovation

While senior management and front-line employees get excited about innovation initiatives, middle managers are usually neglected in the engagement strategy. They are expected to toe the line, meet targets and ensure the organizational cogs keep turning. However, they are not incentivized to pursue flights of fancy or ideas, and innovation may be seen as a distraction to their real work. As a result, managers become unconscious blockers, prioritizing current deliverables and holding back innovation. To overcome this, organizations must consider how they measure manager performance, provide visible recognition, bake innovation into career progression, highlight that a successful team leads to a successful manager and, most importantly, remove barriers and make it easy for managers to support innovation.