The Part of the Innovation Process that Everyone Forgets

Most innovation processes consist of initial discovery, creativity, ideation, proposal building, proposal selection and prototyping, and launching and testing. However, the middle part can be challenging since a lot of work is happening behind the scenes. Instilling excitement and keeping team members engaged throughout the process is crucial. One strategy is highlighting popular or promising ideas, which fosters healthy competition and conversation. Communication also helps build trust in the program and finds advocates and new team members to help with implementation. Dick’s Sporting Goods was able to engage employees in their innovation community by highlighting particularly interesting or promising ideas and showing that there was movement in the community. To learn more, download the case study.