Ideas come from everywhere!
Innovation is crucial to the success of any organization. Innovation can be though of as “creative destruction”, rebirth or constant improvement. Innovation is the end result of traveling with and adapting to the currents of change.
Despite the importance of innovation, most companies have no idea how to make innovation a pro-active and standard way of doing business, as opposed to a reactive response, completely subject to the forces of “luck”.
Innovation is not a thing you “do”. Foremost, it is a way of thinking about your business. The doing and creative action comes second. The first step to creating an innovative organization is getting everyone to adopt this new way of thinking. The central concept to understand is that “ideas come from everywhere and from everyone”.
Encourage everyone to use their imagination and ask to “why not” and “what if” questions. At this beginning stage, no idea is too crazy.
What can you do to stimulate the creative process and come up with new ideas?
First, it’s useful to reengage the child like wonder we all had as children. Shake off the numbing effects of familiarity and start to become amazed at the ordinary aspects of everyday life. This first suggestion is the most valuable, because it trains your mind to be open and to pay attention to everything. If you have no idea where the next great idea will come from, can you afford to allow some information in and block the rest out?
A second source of new ideas can come from study. Scrutinize your completion; learn more about different industries. How could certain principles or themes in your personal hobbies or interests be applied to your business? An almost infinite source of creativity is Mother Nature; study the natural world around you.
Third, get your customers involved in this process. Ask them about their current problems. Ask them what they’d love to see you offer, produce or do to better serve their needs. Ask them to share their “why not” and “what if” ideas.
Finally, every department (HR, Finance, Accounting, etc) must be expected to offer ideas. This will cause you to look at your customers from a perspective different from sales and marketing. In addition to traditional customer service, the focus areas for new ideas are to improve inter-departmental service and strengthening business partner relationships.
At this initial phase, no idea is too outlandish, expensive, or impractical. Brainstorm and imagine. It would be best to schedule re-occurring meeting time to generate ideas and capture them on paper. At this foundational stage towards innovation, getting ideas on paper is your goal.
Copyright 2006 Christopher A. Gayle & Capital Genesis LLC ©. All Rights Reserved.
