4 Steps to Unleash Innovation (and Avoid Irrelevance)!

Written by admin on June 3, 2014 - 0 Comments
Categories: Innovate

Are you and your organization still relevant? Will you still be relevant in five years?

I don’t know if you are or are not, whether you will or won’t. However, the world is changing faster than ever. Individuals and organizations that stay stagnant will be left behind. Those that make innovation a priority and a habit will not only stay competitive but will also be the ones to eventually lead the market.

I recently delivered a new keynote on Unleashing Innovation. Below are four key points from the presentation that can help you, your team, your department, and your entire organization unleash innovation:

1) Build Your Creative Foundation

Yes, creativity and innovation are different. But creativity is where it all starts. If you don’t know how to access and direct your creativity, you will struggle to create meaningful innovation.

For more information on accessing and developing your creativity, click here to sign up for the free How to Think Quick MP3 (fill in the form under the “Resources” heading).

2) Be Strategic

Left unfocused, the creative process can leave you overwhelmed and even more confused than when you began. Therefore it is critical that you stay strategic in your innovation efforts.

There are multiple ways to be strategic. Here, we’ll just focus on one: running all the crazy idea your creativity generated through the simple filter of, “will implementing this idea help our organization achieve its strategic objective?”

If “yes,” great! Get to implementing.

If “no” you have two options:

Let the idea go, no matter how cool it sounds (you can put it in a “to revisit” file and potentially implement later)
Change your strategic objective (be very careful with this – this is not something to do lightly)

3) Use Constraints

We tend to think of constraints as bad things. They limit us and stop us from doing what we want. However, constraints can be your best friend, when approached properly.

As opposed to complaining about constraints, or asking yourself, “how do we keep doing business as usual with this constraint,” let the constraint be a source of creativity and innovation.

Instead of trying to maintain the status quo, ask one of two questions:

“What can we do right here, right now, with what we have?”
“How can we use this constraint to our advantage?”

The first question forces you to stop wishing and use your creativity to come up with new ideas. The second gets you digging even deeper to turning the constraint into a competitive advantage.

4) Raise the Bar

One of the greatest barriers to innovation is our own willingness to settle for what already exists. To innovate, to create something new or do something old in a new way, you must be willing to shed what already is and raise the bar on yourself, your expectations, and your team.

This isn’t about being stupid or setting ridiculously unrealistic goals. It’s about stretching yourself and your comfort to a point where you must innovate.

Here’s a tip: set your goal to a point where you say, “hmm, I am not sure how we are going to achieve that, but I am excited about it.” Then you will be forced to use your creativity to create meaningful innovation.

How About You?

In your life, career, or organization, how effectively are you applying these four ideas? Have you accessed you creative foundation, are you being strategic, are you using constraints, and have you raised the bar?

If not, and if increasing innovation is important to you, then start now! It is a process, but it is doable. The sooner you get started the sooner you will arrive…

Share Your Innovation

Not all innovations need to be game changing, giant technological shifts. In the comments below, leave an example of how you have used one of the ideas above, even in a very small way, to create meaningful innovation for yourself.

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Is your team, department, or company stuck in old ways of thinking? Are you losing your competitive advantage as the world changes around you? Do people in your organization resist change, even when it’s good for them?