Congratulations, your innovation has been approved. You convinced all the relevant people in your organization, you made it through all the meetings, against all odds you may even have gotten a budget. Now it's time to implement.

But what happens after the implementation?

Often innovators develop a very deep relationship with their innovation, too deep at times. They had the new idea, they cared for it, they developed it, they watched it grow, they fought for it and they implemented it. Normally it should end here, because once an innovation has been implemented, it's not an innovation anymore. It turns into standard practice.

In some cases however, innovators can't let go, they literally get married to 'their' innovation, i.e. standard practice and so it becomes personal and counterproductive. By protecting their standard practice, they effectively turn into an obstacle for future innovations.

Good innovators always question the status-quo, even if it is their own. They move on, once they've turned their innovation into standard practice.

Leave the wedding vow to the wedding. "I, innovator, take you, innovation, to be mine, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part." is not a good idea.