30 Metrics for Managing Innovation: Lessons From Growth Leaders ^Top results oriented part of the culture23: An innovative organization needs both right and left brain functions. If one dominates the other results will surely suffer. When divergent and creative thinking are celebrated by the culture, the ideas will flow but the development process becomes clogged. This was the plight of one firm that had so many projects in its pipeline that they joked they had “product escapes instead of product releases,” because few projects were properly completed before being launched. But an entirely buttoned-down and convergent culture may squelch outliers and experimentation. Finding the right balance is the leadership challenge. For example, the management team has to tolerate and encourage “well intentioned” failures that occurred for unexpected and unplanned reasons but brought valuable lessons. Without such tolerance the people working on individual projects will avoid risks. Then the culture subverts the process and all the outcome measures will suffer.  Navigating Uncertainty With Metrics T he foreseeable reality is that most companies will be forced to keep innovating with more projects and tighter budgets. The easy way to get quick savings is to cut the innovation budget across the board. Every project feels some pain—whether it is a high potential winner or a “zombie” project on life support. This is both inefficient and demoralizing to the organization. A more efficient and strategic approach is guided by the innovation dashboard to exercise discipline to cut out wasteful spending on low yield activities while streamlining the innovation process to improve productivity. The aim is to avoid mortgaging the future, by placing bets on high potential innovations. 23 This requires ambidexterity, which in a person is being equally adept with both hands. See Julian Birkinshaw, A. Zimmerman and S. Raisch, “How Do Firms Adapt to Discontinuous Change?: Balancing the Dynamic Capabilities and Ambidexterity Perspectives,” California Management Review, 58 (Summer 2016), 36-58.