Limiting innovation to certain teams
A major innovation myth is that innovation is limited to specific teams that are intentionally created to work on new technologies or new business ventures. In reality, anyone in any role can be innovative, and leaders should actively encourage innovative thinking across the board, especially for employees who work closely with customers.Â
âPart of [cultivating innovation] is recognizing where the information lives that will help you best improve your business. Oftentimes, that information lives where the customer experience is happening,â Bailey says. âYou want the employees who are innovating to be the ones who are familiar with the customerâs perspective. Thatâs where a lot of that rich opportunity is discovered.âÂ
In other words, the biggest potential for identifying innovation lies with the employees who are most deeply involved with the day-to-day workings of the business. Customer experience teams, sales teams, and support teams can more easily identify opportunities for improving the way the business provides value to customers.
How to break down this innovation barrier
Empower everyone to learn and practice innovation skills, such as designing experiments and sharing their findings. The more people share from experimentation, the more others can learn and practice themselves, encouraging the shift into a culture of innovation.
Employees at every level should seek out new opportunities and understand their customersâ problems. Again, when priorities and goals are clear, people can help steer the business in the right direction when the occasion arises.
Undervaluing certain types of innovation
Beyond limiting innovation to certain employees or people, many businesses limit themselves to only certain types of innovation, often unaware that there are different types in the first place. Innovation doesnât always have to involve major changes that alter the entire company, which means that there are plenty of innovative opportunities that go ignored.Â
Developed by the Doblin Innovation Firm in Chicago, there are ten types of innovation that fall into three categories: Configuration (what goes on behind the scenes), offering (the product or service itself), and experience (customer-facing elements). Innovation isnât just developing new operations strategies or coming up with an improved product; it can also involve leveraging networks or focusing on customer service.Â
Because we tend to think of innovation as those brand-altering, life-changing ideas, many people think that theyâre not very innovative, which significantly limits innovative thinking.
How to break down this innovation barrier
To encourage people to identify different types of innovative opportunities, you can encourage your team to consider the following questions:
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What could I do to level up the value of the tasks Iâm working on?
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Are there routine tasks Iâve never questioned before? How could my process of completing these tasks change?Â
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Is there a way to tighten up a process or combine existing ones?
No matter what kind of tasks people are working on, there are always opportunities for innovation and divergent thinking; establishing this mindset goes a long way in fostering innovative solutions.
Missing expert input
Even the best ideas need the right context to take root. A common innovation barrier isnât simply that leaders or experts are âtoo busy,â but that employees donât have clear ways to engage those with deeper insight into the business.Â
Subject matter experts and business leaders often hold critical knowledge about organizational priorities, past innovation attempts, or hidden constraints that can shape raw ideas into viable solutions. Without their input, teams risk solving the wrong problem, duplicating past efforts, or pursuing ideas that donât align with strategy.
âThe most successful innovation happens when good ideas collide with deep context,â Rosenbaugh notes. âIf thereâs no way for employees to engage experts who understand the business, subject matter, and the companyâs priorities, those ideas rarely reach their potential.â
This barrier often shows up as a disconnect between where ideas originate and where context lives. Employees closest to customers or daily operations surface creative solutions, but they may lack visibility into priorities, constraints, or past attempts. Without a clear way to bring those ideas together with expert insight, good intentions can stallâor worse, move forward in ways that create unnecessary rework.
When pathways for expert input donât exist, employees may stop sharing altogether. Over time, innovation becomes siloed, and the organization loses the benefit of diverse perspectives that could have been refined into real breakthroughs.
How to break down this innovation barrier
To ensure opportunities for expert input, leaders can establish transparent decision-making processes that include readily-understood channels for people to be able to engage with them. These channels can include Slack channels, recurring meetings, or asynchronous collaboration opportunities.Â
It also helps to create a company-wide innovation process that clearly outlines when and how leaders or experts will be looped in as innovative ideas are validated. Employees should know when and how their ideas will be evaluated, and experts should know that their role is not to shut ideas down but to add the context that moves them forward.Â
By making engagement intentional, organizations ensure that promising ideas are refined early on and guided in the right direction. This accelerates progress, avoids wasted effort, and reinforces the message that innovation is everyoneâs responsibility, supported by the wisdom of the whole organization.
