Want to know what it takes to be innovative in your company? here is Bob Sutton's personal advice:

I talked about what I’ve learned about teaching people to innovate from academic research, teaching classes in the d.school and Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and from working with companies like IDEO, HP, and SAP. I emphasized five points and their implications for policy. I doubt that many of you will be surprised by any of these ideas, but knowing is not the same is doing. Few of these practices are used at the university level – not just in the AER, throughout the world. Here are the five points:

1 Producing smart individuals is the first step; teaching them to collaborate is the second step.

2 Teach people how to fight as if they are right and listen as if they are wrong.

3. Teach experts to seek out novices, and novices to seek out experts.

4. Teach people to treat innovation as an import-export business.

5. Teaching people how to succeed isn’t enough; teach them how to fail too.

I also added that renowned innovators – from Charles Darwin to Steve Jobs – not only have good ideas, they also always seem to be able to sell their ideas or to hook-up with people who can do it for them.

I like point 4. Too many of us don't understand the economic value of innovation. Shifting mental gears to consider it as an exportable product may be a good first step to overcoming that inertia.