So previously I was talking about some of the commonolaties between good innovation practice in general and some of the well tested methods to do agile software design. For the agile software side of that equation I forgot this summary by Alistair Cockburn of what you're supposed to do. I particularly like that Cockburn also has a version of the "leave it alone" suggestion I made with his personal safety point.
The good thing about the practices Cockburn highlight is that none of them cost serious money or time. All it is is healthy direct communication that builds good knowledge - and good products.
I feel blessed to have experienced this kind of work environment over the last couple of years...

[UPDATE: Also Joi Ito chimes in from a completely different angle:

Some of the elements of a cool place is that there isn’t so much of an "authority" but there is a sense of safety.