Most organisations say they want innovation. But very few create the conditions for it to happen.
The way your organisation works either supports innovation or stifles it. There is no neutral ground. Every process, policy, meeting, and metric either makes it easier to try something new or quietly signals that it is not worth the risk.
So here is the real question.
Have you built an environment where curiosity, creativity, and experimentation is expected, supported, and resourced?
Because if not, it does not matter how bold your vision is or how much you invest in training or idea campaigns. The system will hold you back.
You do not need more creativity. You need fewer barriers.
This is where The Enabling Force starts to come to life. It is not about inspirational speeches or all-hands meeting powerpoints filled with slogans. It is about the everyday structure of work. The choices you make. The signals you send. The space you create.
The Enabling Force is one of the 7 Forces of Innovation. It comes early on because if the system is not designed to support innovation, nothing else gets off the ground.
Here are six practical shifts that start to shape a more enabling system:
1. Cut through the red tape
Most processes are not about performance. They are about protection. Built in response to fear or failure, not in service of innovation.
For example, layers of sign-off do not reduce risk, they just reduce speed, and kill energy.
Innovation needs fluid structure, not suffocation. Great teams do not ignore rules. They navigate them with creativity. When constraints are framed with purpose, they become fuel. Not friction.
So look at your systems and start cutting what is no longer useful.
2. Balance efficiency with exploration
Yes, efficiency matters but too much focus on output, without room for input, limits progress.
Efficiency improves what is. Innovation creates what could be.
If you are only measuring how fast people are shipping, not what they are learning or where they are stretching, then exploration gets squeezed out. This is how the future becomes an afterthought.
You need both. One foot in today. One eye on tomorrow.
3. Trade sign-off for small steps
Innovation does not need full-scale investment. It needs momentum. Small bets. Fast feedback.
Waiting for perfect data or senior approval slows everything down. Instead, give teams small budgets to test and learn. Start with as little as $100. Let them run a pilot, report back, and unlock the next round.
This builds trust, accountability, and learning. All without the drag of overcommitment.
4. Shift from top-down to side-by-side
The most exciting breakthroughs do not come from a title. They come from a team.
Innovation cannot sit in a single department. It thrives when leaders walk alongside, not above. When curiosity is modelled, not mandated. When listening is as active as speaking.
This is not about stepping back. It is about showing up differently. Be present. Be open. Be real.
When people feel seen and supported, they step into the unknown with confidence.
5. Celebrate discovery, not just success
If the only stories you tell are success stories, failure becomes something to avoid. And when failure is avoided, experimentation disappears.
To build a culture of innovation, you must reward learning. Shine a light on the people who tried something new. Who ran the experiment. Who found out what does not work. That is how you find out what might.
Celebrate the discovery. That is what creates momentum.
6. Remove what gets in the way
Improving your system of work to enable innovation is rarely about adding more. It is about removing what gets in the way.
This is a mistake people make too often. They want people to innovate more so they buy the latest digital whiteboard program, they add innovation to job descriptions, they book ‘innovation’ meetings into the team’s schedule and create metrics for it…
But they fail to ask the important question…
Have I made it safe, possible, and visible for people to explore, create, test, and learn?
If the answer is no, then that is your real starting point.
You can talk about innovation. You can run sessions. You can fund new tools… believe me, none of it will stick unless the system lets it.
So take a moment to ask yourself:
● Are people overloaded, or do they have space to think?
● Are meetings filled with updates or with curious questions?
● Do your teams wait for permission or act with purpose?
● Is failure something to hide or something to learn from?
● Do you talk about innovation or make it easy to act on?
Your answers to those questions are more revealing than any keynote.
If you want to lead innovation, you have to enable it
The Enabling Force is more than a mindset, it is a responsibility.
It is about removing blockers, not adding pressure. It is about creating space, not adding noise. It is about shaping a system that invites movement, not just measurement.
You do not need a new playbook. You need to build the conditions.
The right people are already there. The ideas are already forming. However, nothing will move until the system lets it.
That is your job now.
Not to push harder. To clear the way.