There are plenty of success stories out there about Innovation and Idea Systems successes; conversely, there are plenty of examples of Idea Systems going wrong – and in every case, these failures were avoidable. There are common threads to both outcomes which are mutually inclusive:

1. Innovation and Idea systems, whether internally facing, externally facing or both, require visible and sustained senior management support along with bona fide executive sponsorship; without it, there is no feeling of priority among the participant community and absolutely no sense of urgency. Organizations need leadership as do specific initiatives – and in the times we live, organizations desperately need hands-on leadership.
   
   
2. Workflows need to be inclusive, discussed, analyzed, thought-out and agreed-to prior to finalizing a process design – if the organization does not take this necessary step backward, it will trip trying to take two steps forward. Once properly launched, the inertia that your Idea Process develops is difficult to temper and downright impossible to reverse without causing irreparable damage to the image and energy of your program.
   
   
3. Idea development needs to have purposeful tools and timely collaboration to optimize expression, understanding, documentation, financial justification and implementation. If ideas aren’t as fully-baked as possible when arriving at the evaluation/decision-making stage, there is a good chance that:
   
   
   1. The ideas will stop dead in their tracks
   2. These ideas will languish and eventually die
   3. Your process will fast start to lose its evaluators and decision-makers – and soon after, all participation will cease
   4. Resentment will build and finger-pointing will set-in

   Point C is a particularly common and pivotal ailment, as these process role-players are typically your organization’s “go to” people for many other important issues – if they are suddenly called upon to roll-up their sleeves because the incoming ideas assigned to them are poorly put together or under-developed, there is a 100% chance they’ll increasingly opt-out of new idea mandates, or worse, completely disengage on the spot – there are just too many other important things to get at and not enough time to do them all. Evaluators and decision makers expect to evaluate and decide – it is imperative that they get well developed and well expressed ideas to keep them engaged.
   

4. There needs to be a equitable, inclusive and exciting Rewards & Recognition program to first garner attention and then drive participation, collaboration and tasking. Without it, why should anyone get excited about doing even more work than they are doing already? Would you? There has to be something in it for everyone if you want all the gears in the people machinery to mesh.
   

5. Communications have to be outstanding and comprehensive to capture the participant’s imagination, build trust and prompt action. They also have to have a media plan and overall strategy of sustainability because we are competing for the attention of people that are busy with all the things people get busy with – if you want your program to be top-of-mind with your user community, reach them often and in creative ways that cut through the noise and clutter. It is also critical to keep users informed at all process levels as to the movement and outcomes of ideas that they’ve had a hand in as well as the overall process performance.

These are the basic pillars of success that no Innovation and Idea Management Process can live without – not that complicated really. Planning, commitment, execution and staying the course is up to the leadership.