Be more Innovative!
In this globally competitive world innovation is one of the keys to your success. If you can’t differentiate your offering, you may end up selling on price, which is an easy game to lose. Innovation can provide new products and services that set your company apart from the competition. But how do you create a culture that unleashes and capitalizes on innovation? Here are seven ways to make your company more innovative:
1. Get in the zone: If you think about where you have your most innovative ideas, it’s not working in your office. Innovative ideas tend to come to use when our mind is clear. Maybe it’s when you are running, hiking, wind surfing, or some other favorite activity that gets you in the zone. Encourage your employees to take time to get in the zone and then have a way to record those creative ideas
2. Ask the right questions: Innovation requires asking the right questions. Learn to ask questions like; what challenges do our customers face, how what we do compare to what the competition does, and what big bold solution can we develop for problems our customers have. Often, it can be important to observe and just to ask why. Ultimately you want to train your organization to be a learning machine that continuously optimizes your business.
3. Brainstorm: Encourage your teams to brainstorm new ideas. Consider ways to motivate and reward those that participate and develop useful ideas. Remember to encourage your team to keep an open mind when brainstorming and try to find situations that allow the participants to have a clear mind and get in the zone. You should also encourage employees to be engaged and speak up when they have new ideas. If you reward something, you get more of it.
4. Get the right people on the bus: In addition to encouraging innovation, you should realize that some people are just more innovative than others are. These people tend to be above average at pattern recognition. Get a few of them on the bus. It’s important to have the right people and resources focused on development. Once you do, assure that all employees understand how their work ultimately serves the customer.
5. Network: Networking offers many important benefits to anyone in business. Networking also allows you to be more innovative. The larger your network, the more information you are exposed to and the more likely you will connect the dots. Innovators increase the probability that they are going to gain useful insights and execute on those ideas.
6. Spend time with your customers: To be creative and develop innovative solutions for an industry, you have to understand its workings and challenges in details. Spend time with your customers learning about their business and where their pain points are. Focus on your customers, as this is where finding innovation begins.
7. Be open-minded: You need to assure that you and your team are opened minded. Seek ideas that are different from the competition. Imitation never leads to greatness. Truly creative solutions are often contrary to conventional wisdom. These are the creative solutions that can drive amazing success via innovation. You also need to invest in your employees by paying attention to their education, training and development. This improves moral, motivates employees and helps to build an innovation culture.
It’s important to understand your business environment, with emphasis on your customers and their challenges. That beings said, one thing I have noticed over the years is that many of the most innovative solutions don’t come from the customer; they come from understanding what the customer would appreciate. Strive to build an innovation culture from the top to the bottom of your organization. Innovation, differentiation and focusing on your customers should be part of your day-to-day process. Implementing an innovation culture can seem intimidating. Contact us if you need help.
