It’s been said that innovation is the lifeblood of business — and quite often, it seems like a business leader could receive no higher praise than being labeled an innovator. And, in a time of environmental destruction, supply chain crises and other major disruptions, the world desperately needs innovators who can solve today’s tough business problems.

Fortunately, the path to becoming a better innovator isn’t as murky as you might expect. If you create a culture of innovation and incorporate collaboration by focusing on both transformative “creative destruction” ideas, as well as big little breakthroughs, you can become the type of innovator the world needs.

Become a Better Collaborator

Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Josh Linkner, a best-selling author of four books on innovation and two-time winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, is a staunch believer that some of the best innovation stems from collaborations.

Interestingly, Linkner learned the power of creative collaboration when he was a professional jazz guitarist. “Jazz is a real-time work of innovation. Very often, one musician starts with a musical idea such as a simple phrase or rhythm. Then another musician builds on the idea, passing it to yet another for further refinement. Collaboration brings the finished product to life, with each musician contributing to the greater good. The final product wouldn’t be nearly as good if it was a true solo act of creativity.”

So how do jazz musicians relate to today’s modern business world? Linkner explains, “Business teams should approach business solutions in small ‘jam session’ teams, passing ideas back and forth with mutual trust, respect, and psychological safety. I’ve found when you create this environment the group’s collective creativity is almost always more powerful than a single individual.”

Foster a Culture of Innovation

While Linkner references the culture of creating mutual trust, respect and psychological safety, there are other ingredients you can also lean on to foster a culture of innovation. An article from InformationWeek noted how any organization can unleash an entrepreneurial spirit by building a culture of innovation through specific actions like communicating the company goals and mission, providing ongoing training, empowering employees in their work and accepting failure as part of the learning process.

Of these, perhaps few are more important than empowering employees and giving them the opportunity to innovate in the areas they are directly responsible for.

This became especially clear during a recent email conversation with Aakash Sirohi, co-founder and COO of New Hope Health. He explained, “Our programs aim to provide individualized treatment for children. While this is based on scientific methods, it naturally requires a sense of ownership from the employees conducting assessments and developing treatment plans. They need full empowerment in their roles to determine what’s best for each child. Enabling them with customized, web-based tools, we provide an environment that supports individual initiatives. This creates a sense of ownership and accountability that leads to greater innovation and more focused, personalized care.”

Empowering your team by creating a culture of innovation will naturally lead to higher engagement, satisfaction and retention — all while improving your business’s productivity and profit.

Embrace Creative Destruction and ‘Big Little Breakthroughs’

I’ve previously written on the topic of creative destruction — a phenomenon that Investopedia describes as “the dismantling of long-standing practices in order to make way for innovation and is seen as a driving force of capitalism.”

Headline-grabbing examples like Netflix taking down the video rental store or automobiles replacing the horse and buggy are examples of creative destruction. While creative destruction can bring big benefits from big ideas, it is important to realize the power of what Josh Linkner writes about in his book “Big Little Breakthroughs.”

Linkner suggests that while shooting for a $10 billion IPO or a Nobel Prize is great, it is important to not forget how little breakthroughs unlock massive rewards over time. “The most world-changing innovations are nothing more than a collage of tiny creative acts. Your most successful path forward isn’t taking gigantic, wild swings but rather to cultivate small, daily shots of creativity that coalesce into meaningful results.”

To accomplish this, Linkner suggests people build the habit of cultivating high volumes of micro innovations. “When people spend a small amount of time everyday thinking about how they can make everyday improvements it not only de-risks the creative process, it builds the much-needed skills that can lead to colossal transformations over time. And when you exercise your creative muscle it builds confidence to take responsible risks.”

What does this mean for your own business? It means seeking continuous progress that will improve the standard of living for your employees or customers. This doesn’t mean you have to create a completely new product or service that will replace what people already use. It could simply entail reevaluating business practices that are keeping you from being as efficient as you could be — whether that be your internal processes or how you approach partnerships.

Becoming a True Innovator

Becoming a true innovator is not as hard as you might think when you consciously foster a culture of innovation, promote creative collaboration and remember the power of working two angles for solving problems: creative destruction and big little breakthroughs.

Now, all that’s left to do is get to work.