Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

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If you want a way to quickly transform your organization’s innovation culture, ask people to spend less time on simply identifying and developing good ideas and more time on testing their hypotheses.

o A business hypothesis is a testable belief about future value creation. It suggests a possible causal relationship between a proposed action and an economically desirable outcome. A testable hypothesis provokes more action-oriented discussion because accountability is built in: it will pass or fail its test, and you’ll learn either way.

o But what’s the accountability for an idea that’s merely good? The fact that a lot of people think it’s a good idea? That’s a popularity contest.

o A testable hypothesis must have an explicit and understood measure or metric, and it has to be agreed upon, in writing, and shareable. That’s how good ideas get converted into real value.

Adapted from “A Testable Idea Is Better than a Good Idea” by Michael Schrage.

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