At a recent presentation in Austin by Seilevel about the goals and methods of requirements gathering, a member of the audience asked “What can we do with our requirements to assure innovation?” That’s a tough question with an easy answer – nothing.

What if the question had been “What can we do to prevent innovation?” That’s a better question with a lot of answers.

Struggling with too much innovation?

Yes, people have been innovating since fire and the wheel it’s a curse we’ve inherited. In modern times, much of that innovation has happened inside companies. 3M had the post-it note, Lockheed had the skunkworks that created the SR71. Google allows their employees to dedicate 20% of their time to whatever interests them – and Google’s employees innovate a lot.

Most companies do a good job of providing incremental improvements to existing products and processes. What are those few who struggle with innovation doing wrong?

Companies with track records of innovation have flawed processes.

They fail to screen out likely innovaters in their hiring process.

They mismanage their employees, who end up innovating when they should be towing the line.

They inadvertantly reward innovation instead of mediocrity with recognition and compensation.

They create opportunities to innovate and their employees drive Mack trucks through these loopholes.

Here is some guidance about how to fix those problems:

Top ten tips for preventing innovation