There are several actions that organizational leaders can take to promote new ideas for improving the performance of value chain activities:

• Encouraging individuals and groups to brainstorm, let their imaginations fly in all directions, and come up with proposals for improving how things are done
• Taking special pains to foster, nourish, and support people who are eager for a chance to try turning their ideas into better ways of operating
• Ensuring that the rewards for successful champions are large and visible and that people who champion an unsuccessful idea are not punished or sidelined but rather encouraged to try again
• Using all kinds of ad-hoc organizational forms to support ideas and experimentation
• Using the tools of benchmarking, best practices, re-engineering, TQM, and Six Sigma quality to focus attention on continuous improvement