Fostering a culture of innovation

Thanks for bringing this topic Anupam.
I agree with Samuel on open and encouraging environment

Few thoughts:
1. Innovation would come if the team has grip on the domain and technical aspects of the work
2. Make people to think, think and think and Encourage openness
3. Value all ideas provided, irrespective of the immediate impact & relevance
4. Inculcate the habit of being passionate to find endless possibilities
5. Explore improvement in everything we do
Have a tool to start collecting the ideas and supplement it with voting, then convert this into organizational level framework to foster innovation.

Some basic things I would do:

Ask questions to stimulate thinking

Ensure an open, non-threatening environment, so that team members feel comfortable to bring up ideas

Provide a structured way to track and follow-up on ideas, so that team members feel it is worth bringing something up and that it won’t fall on deaf ears or just get lost somewhere

Lot of people make lot of money talking about some of the new buzzwords in the new world: innovation. But some of those people forget to mention what is critical to innovate: time available to think. And let me say, time available to dream. So, the first question you have to make yourself is: do will have my team free time or available time to think?. That is the key.

Samuel and Surendar, have a rather complete comment.

Innovation Culture need not to be a one way street, encourage and implement.

Lot of people make lot of money talking about some of the new buzzwords in the new world: innovation. But some of those people forget to mention what is critical to innovate: time available to think. And let me say, time available to dream. So, the first question you have to make yourself is: do will have my team free time or available time to think?. That is the key.