Bring together a group of highly intelligent individuals who are passionate about their business and dedicated to finding solutions, and innovation is inevitable, right? Actually, no.

In working with C-level leaders who are struggling with organic growth, mergers and collaborations, I have seen their frustration and the frustration of their teams when innovation fails. The very ideas that would make growth, mergers and collaborations easier get trampled underfoot or never expressed.

The path to innovation is littered with well-meaning people and ideas that failed. The five paths I recommend here will not only generate ideas but ensure their execution.

Path 1: Create A Process

Someone in your organization develops a great idea. What happens next? Without an innovation process or if it is too complicated, that idea dies an early death.

A healthcare CEO recently shared with me how an incomplete process affected his own innovation efforts, even after he received buy-in from the hospital leadership team. Application of the innovation took over six months because he had to navigate each of the following steps on his own: security review, privacy review, IT integration, institutional review board approval and supply chain sourcing. While there were processes for each of these components, the institution did not have an end-to-end innovation process, creating a new roadblock at every point.

Innovative leaders cannot tackle alone the multitude of regulations, stakeholders, departments and committees, plus the daily tasks that stand in their way. Every organization looking for innovation needs a process that supports, not impedes, new ideas.