Or should I say, how do start moving in the direction of making something better? First of all, don’t outsource your creativity to someone else, you already have it. Innovation is a habit, get this in your mind because you WILL have to make some minor changes in your routines.
To change your outcomes, change your routines.
Ok you asked me how. First I would make sure everyone in the company has a common understanding of what ‘innovation means to you’ and once you get there then focus your efforts on the challenges and opportunities your business faces, like new customer needs and industry problems. (Don’t just say you want innovation, people need to know where they’re going!)
From here it all comes down to:
- Find out people’s natural creative style and nurture it before giving them more tools and techniques. (*this one is important to understand)
- Create ‘habits of innovation‘ around their creative style so they do it more often (why, what if, why not around your biz opportunities and challenges)
- Give people space and let them play with their ideas (prototype, ponder, think, collaborate at their own rhythm)
- Create a process to turn ideas into outputs (which ones merit attention and how will we pursue them?)
- Test and optimize
- Repeat
This is fairly simple and there are more details but I hope you get the point, the main thing is to just get started and get your feet in the pool.
Did I miss something? What would you add?
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