From Innovations, a website published by Ziff-Davis Enterprise from mid-2006 to mid-2009. Reprinted by permission.

It’s been said that if you build an organization entirely out of creative people you get chaos but if you build one strictly out of task-oriented people you get the registry of motor vehicles. But innovation is neither creativity nor routine; it’s a cultural bias toward continually improving the way business is done. Every single employee in your organization should strive to innovate in ways that streamline tasks or create new business opportunities. There’s no downside to having a workforce composed entirely of innovators.

Innovative employees are important not only because they think up ways to improve the business but also because they have the mindset to tolerate change and innovation by others. Nothing will derail a project faster than the “That’s the way we’ve always done it” or the “You must fill out this form” mentality. You need to build innovation into your human resource strategy from the start.  Here are a few strategies that I’ve seen successful organizations use:

Look for innovative job candidates – Hiring managers and HR departments should be alerted to look for candidates who use words like “initiate,” “create” and “conceive” in their resumes. Avoid the people who “perform” their job or whose “responsibilities include” a laundry list of tasks. When interviewing candidates, be sure to ask for specific examples of ideas they have conceived and carried through to fruition. The second part of that equation is critical. There are plenty of good ideas out there, but precious few people who can see them through to results. Finally, check references and be sure to ask past employers for specifics about a candidate’s innovativeness.

Celebrate innovation – Study after study has documented that most people value peer recognition more than money. So put in place some small programs that recognize innovation and tie them to creative rewards. One company I worked for awarded the journalist with the best “scoop” story of the month an ice cream scoop, gift certificate to a gourmet ice cream shop and a framed certificate. People displayed those certificates proudly for years. You can create your own program. Launch a monthly innovation award that includes a short article in the company newsletter, two tickets to a show or ballgame and a photo of the winner with your CEO. Stick with it. If you make reward programs a part of your culture people will learn to value them. If you let them lapse, people will doubt your sincerity.

Demonstrate that innovation yields promotion – Many companies don’t do nearly as good a job as they could of telling employees why certain people get ahead. When you announce a promotion, point to specific examples of how someone demonstrated innovation in their work. And tell them what was innovative about what they did.

Put your money where your mouth is – Search giant Google is famous for encouraging its employees to spend 20% of their time working on new ideas. You don’t have to go that far, but you can make it a point to give people time and funding to develop ideas into business plans. Don’t make this work additive. Use temporary help or divide tasks among others in the group to give the employee time to develop an idea. Tie small bonuses to short-term milestones or offer to give back to the employee a small percentage of the savings or revenues benefits you realize from their ideas. If the idea really has legs, put the employee in charge of the group that’s charged with carrying it through to fruition.

One other point is worth noting. Recognizing innovation means that management must give up its monopoly on good ideas. You need to control egos so managers are encouraged to step back and let the spotlight shine on their best people. That’s a scary idea for control-oriented bosses, so you need to make it clear to all your managers that the success of their employees reflects well on them. You can do this in little ways: quote the manager in that company newsletter article or add the manager’s name to the innovation award certificate. Just make sure that everyone in the company understands that innovation is a quality that’s valued at every single level of the organization chart.