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If you asked almost any group of executives about innovation, they would likely say they value it.
In my experience, leaders behind some of the strongest companies in the country describe innovation as a force multiplier — the thing that separates leaders from followers. But inside most organizations, innovation often triggers something else entirely: fear.
For an idea to be implemented, it has to survive a journey through the organization. Most innovations don’t fail in the boardroom. They fail somewhere in the middle.
Don’t dismiss small problems — they signal bigger breakdowns
According to a survey conducted by 15Five, “81% of employees would rather join a company that values open communication than one that offers great perks such as top health plans, free food and gym memberships.” Think about that. More than what this means for retention or talent acquisition, what does this say about how little executives do to engage with people a level or two below them?
At my old company, we hosted a regular, massive town hall. If you have a sales idea, an expense issue or an operational problem, let’s hear it. After I opened the floor for questions, a maintenance employee called in. I can’t remember exactly where he was from, so let’s say he was Joe from Altoona.
Joe was having trouble cleaning the floors in his store. People tried to move the call along. It sounded like a small facilities issue. The instinct was to take it offline. I stopped them because I was intrigued by why this guy would think to call us with this problem. Besides that, if the floors aren’t clean, that’s not a small problem. Customers notice it. It affects the store.
He explained that his machine, one of those Zamboni-looking ones, wasn’t working, that it was out of fluid. We tried to assure him that we’d order him whatever he needed and get on to bigger matters. This time, he stopped us. He explained that the machine required a specific chemical solution to operate. At some point, someone in the system had removed that supply item. The stores could no longer order it, which meant the machine simply couldn’t run.
No one intended to create the problem. Somewhere in the organization, a supply item had been discontinued without realizing what depended on it. The maintenance employee had tried to raise the issue through normal channels and kept hitting a wall. So he called the town hall. We fixed the problem immediately, but that isn’t really the point.
That employee should never have needed to call the president of the company to get a floor machine working.
Not everyone is as brave as Joe from Altoona. Most people, those closest to the clients, keep quiet. We can’t create companies where you have to be brave to tell the emperor that he has no chemical cleaning solution.
Fix the middle management bottleneck
Middle managers sit in one of the most difficult positions in any organization. Harvard Business Review reports that middle managers experience the least psychological safety at work. The article explains that this fear creates a situation where those in middle management “don’t feel safe to voice concerns or admit mistakes, that feedback loop breaks. Vital information never reaches the top, problems remain undiagnosed, and the whole system falters, stumbles, and risks falling behind.”
When someone brings them a new idea, it introduces uncertainty. Trying something new might disrupt the workflow, create additional work, or jeopardize short-term performance targets. In that environment, the safest answer is often the simplest one. They thank their direct report and say, “Not now.” While they will filter out noise and kooky ideas, this becomes a habit.
Most of the time, this is simply the result of competing priorities and constant pressure to deliver results. Regardless of the intent, good ideas get filed away with the bad ones. Innovation never stands a chance.
Go to the front lines for better ideas
Companies don’t lack ideas. Spend a few minutes talking with frontline employees, and you will hear countless ways the business could improve. Allow yourself to be the president or CEO who gets humbled over a bagel.
In a casual meeting over some everything bagels, a store manager asked me when the salespeople were arriving. I didn’t know what he meant. He told us that his old company had dedicated account managers for each location to help drive business. This never occurred to us before. We hired 10 salespeople ASAP. With no capital expense and a break-even in five months, we were tracking toward a million dollars in sales.
There’s gold out there for anyone willing to get their hands dirty. Hear 100 bad ideas. Let people know what you don’t know. The worst-case scenario is that your people feel heard.
Build systems that move ideas forward
If you want more innovation inside your organization, the answer is not another brainstorming session with the executive team. The ideas are already there. The challenge is making sure they survive the trip upward.
One of the smartest suggestions I heard to solve this issue came from someone who still works closely with me on communications. She explained that town halls are useful, but they are limited. She proposed a digital forum where employees can submit ideas, flag problems, and suggest improvements, creating a continuous channel for feedback.
That kind of system does two things. It surfaces issues faster, and it sends a clear message that leadership actually wants to hear from the people closest to the work.
Innovation begins with someone noticing a problem and suggesting a better way forward. Leaders need to make it clear that a manager’s job is not just to evaluate ideas, but to elevate the promising ones. Middle managers should function as translators between the front line and leadership, helping refine ideas and move them upward rather than quietly shelving them.
Create visible pathways for ideas to travel. Employees need to know where an idea goes after they raise their hand. Whether it is a digital forum, an internal innovation channel, or structured feedback sessions, the mechanism matters less than the consistency and the follow-through. When people see that ideas are reviewed, discussed, and occasionally implemented, participation grows quickly. Without that visibility, employees assume their input disappears into a black hole.
Finally, adjust the incentives that shape behavior in the middle of the organization. If middle managers are judged entirely on short-term performance metrics, they will naturally prioritize stability over experimentation. Leaders have to signal that thoughtful experimentation and problem-solving are part of the job. When managers know they will not be penalized for exploring a good idea, they become far more willing to champion it.
The goal is not to remove middle management from the innovation process. The goal is to turn that layer of the organization from a gatekeeper into a conduit.
Innovation may have the power to drive industries, but it needs a little help making the trip to the boardroom.
If you asked almost any group of executives about innovation, they would likely say they value it.
In my experience, leaders behind some of the strongest companies in the country describe innovation as a force multiplier — the thing that separates leaders from followers. But inside most organizations, innovation often triggers something else entirely: fear.
For an idea to be implemented, it has to survive a journey through the organization. Most innovations don’t fail in the boardroom. They fail somewhere in the middle.
