Much of the recent discussion surrounding innovation in the enterprise has been geared towards consumer-facing aspects of the business: crowdsourcing new product ideas, engaging the consumer in experiential marketing, or even asking the consumer to develop advertising or mobile applications for the business.

While these are all innovative ways to engage the consumer and garner some relatively cheap attention, business leaders often find themselves relying on “tried and true” examples of innovation, rather than harnessing it from within their organization. We often work with clients on internal crowdsourcing projects to great success, but as many of our clients and staff here at PulsePoint Group will tell you, the most glaring obstacle is often times the lack of an embedded approach to harnessing innovative thinking and practices within teams or throughout the organization. Sometimes the organization’s biggest hurdle to embracing innovation is simply not knowing how.

Businessweek published an article this week on GE’s five-year-old “Leadership, Innovation, and Growth” (LIG) initiative, employed by the company as a vehicle to jump start innovation and growth from deep within the organization. The initiative focuses on practical ways leaders and employees can instill traits within the company’s culture that foster the type of environment needed for organizations to get the most out of internal innovation projects like crowdsourcing platforms. Co-authored by GE’s VP of Executive Development and Chief Learning officer, Susan Peters, the article shares six practices GE has implemented within their organization as they work towards developing a culture where harnessing innovation is not a part of an exercise or project, but rather a way of running the business.

As innovation plays an increasingly important role across all factions of the enterprise, organizations that are able to create a culture that works, thinks, and executes with an eye towards the human aspects associated with an “innovation ready” culture will surely come out ahead of those who do not.

You can read Peters’ and GE’s execution roadmap here.