Defining this broad, vague topic—and making sure it thrives in your organization—requires concrete, specific action.

Innovation starts with ideas. It’s invention, in other words. But it doesn’t end there. Innovation means taking an invention—a new or improved product, process or service—and bringing it successfully to a receptive public. It involves creativity in design, execution, marketing and every other aspect of the enterprise. Perhaps the simplest way to define innovation is measurable, productive creativity.

Great. But how do you make that happen? The answer is strategy. Strategy doesn’t involve “trial and error” or “hoping for the best.” It means fostering an environment in which innovation is the foundation of the enterprise, where it’s encouraged, measured and rewarded. It means removing two of the biggest barriers to innovation: inflexible company culture and stifling leadership.

In a recent article for Inc. magazine, A.G. Lafley, the chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble, wrote that creating an innovative environment means “building disciplines around the creation, capture and execution of new ideas.” Making innovation routine, he wrote, is “not an oxymoron. It is a mandate.” Let’s look at Lafley’s three stages in detail, with ideas from a variety of experts:

Creation: Great ideas don’t happen in a vacuum, and more often than not, they don’t even happen at one’s desk. Creativity can’t be enforced. It can only be encouraged. That usually means interrupting routine, allowing for failure and generally mixing things up. Consider flexible work schedules, greater vacation and personal time, diversifying the workforce, job-swapping (in which employees spend time in a department other than their own), project-based rather than hierarchical staff organization and other ideas for changing things up.

Capture: Pie-in-the-sky ideas are no good if that’s where they remain. Encourage the dissemination and sharing of ideas within your organization. Have regular, open brainstorming sessions, project presentations or an internal newsletter to which employees are encouraged to contribute. Create project displays, either real or virtual, open to comments from everyone. Most importantly, reward ideas with public praise or token awards—even if they don’t wind up in the marketplace.

Execution: Once an idea springs up, it will die unless nurtured. Make sure ideas become projects by vetting them seriously and making them compete for attention. One of the country’s most innovative companies, W.L. Gore & Associates (of Gore-Tex fame) takes this to an extreme: When an employee—any employee—devises a project, he or she must recruit and lead a group to bring it to fruition. If the idea isn’t strong enough to win over co-workers, it won’t see the light of day.

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