"Probably a third of the people I spoke to [at the Front End of Innovation conference] felt stymied by their culture - to the point where they've given up trying to implement anything and are simply observers of innovation," says Jeffrey Phillips, one of several Corante contributors writing about corporate innovation cultures.

According to Jeffrey, the problems seem to come down to motivation, flexibility, and willingness to invest in innovation. His solution? "I think many innovators need a "get out of my corporate culture" free card."

Meanwhile, Rod Boothby writes about corporate cultures that rely too heavily on robotic, assembly-line-like processes for knoweldge workers. He says

"...you are surrounded by IT people who think that the first step in solving all your problems is to gather user requirements, and somewhere, try to find a robotic task or an assembly line process that can be automated....nstead of assuming that knowledge workers have a process that needs automating, or a work flow that needs controlling, [IT people should] ask what they do. Maybe they do not need an automation tool. Maybe they need a communication tool. Maybe they need things to help them be more creative."

"A learning moment is a positive or negative outcome of any situation. But what it really is, is a culture where people are applauded and rewarded for sharing what works and what doesn't work. It's a freedom culture. It is one that takes away fear. I ran a 12-month program where every month I had people email me and share their learning moments. They would all get prizes and in the end we sent one of our employees on a fully paid trip around the world. The first month there were a few emails. Then as they saw they weren't being punished for this, more came."