The problem with some organizations is that "we get stuck in the strategic plan," Roberts told several hundred attendees. "We all go to the retreats," then just days later forget what was discussed.

"Oftentimes, we hide behind the bullet points," he said. "It's so easy to hide behind the mission statements and the strategic plans and the meetings upon meetings and the conference calls."

But "what we're not doing is we're not talking with each other, were not throwing ideas out … because were afraid that … the rest of the team won't embrace it" or buy into them, Roberts said.

However, he concluded, "we have to … incentivize the other people in the organization to keep pushing the innovation curve" by enabling failure, then going back and trying again.