When a Thousand Flowers Bloom: Structural, Collective, and Social Conditions for Innovation in Organizations

“Let a thousand flowers bloom.” This slogan, designed to awaken an entire nation to new ideas, offers an apt metaphor for innovation. Innovations, like flowers, start from tiny seeds and have to be nurtured carefully until they blossom; then their essence has to be carried elsewhere for the flowers to spread. And some conditions—soil, climate, fertilizer, the layout of the garden—produce larger and more abundant flowers.