Frustrated with a culture that isn’t innovative? You’re probably missing a key management practice.

Leading strategic growth and change doesn’t need to be a mystery! If only we taught people the skills necessary for three key leadership roles, it could be a lot more systematic and corporate transformation efforts might yield a lot more success.

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The anatomy of a successful growth pipeline.

The first thing to realize about managing a pipeline for innovation and growth is that it implies that you will have many initiatives in different stages, all at the same time. Different companies call these stages different things, but I’ll argue that you need at least the following five types of projects.

• Growth opportunities: These are often just ideas that have not yet found a home. You do want to ensure a steady flow of them, which implies some slack resources that are available for people who would like to try new things out. Ideas can come from anywhere, so make sure that everyone knows theirs are welcome.
• Growth projects: These are the projects that people are actively working on. It could be part-time, it could be small-scale, but they are in pursuit of finding that magical chemistry between what your organization can offer and what a willing buyer in a market might want.