I’ve argued before that innovation is the result of consistently trying to do something better than it’s done before, sometimes this also means that it has to be different. This simple idea is well understood but not easy to put into action because it’s very difficult for most people to think about why they do what they do and how they could do it better. Routines and habits are very very powerful!
With this in mind, one newsletter I look forward to reading every two weeks is Jeffrey Baumgartner’s JPB newsletter. The most recent one talks about the need to ‘stop and think’ before solving a problem the same way it was solved before.
A litmus test for solving a problem in a different way is when you see that problem keep coming up consistently and becomes a pattern. This is a signal that the system is stuck, a process has become rigid and is plagued by the same problems over and over again. This is an opportunity for a new order of things, for innovation!
I encourage you to read the JPB Newsletter, it has other articles in there that are also worth reading 😉
UPDATE: Mitch Ditkoff pointed me to The ultimate STOP AND THINK article on his blog that is well worth reading, very interesting indeed. Thanks Mitch 🙂
Related articles by Zemanta
- Routines: Comforting or Confining? (psychologytoday.com)
- Generate killer ideas with these 20 suggestions (theglobeandmail.com)
- What is the REAL Problem? from Reality Refracted (realityrefracted.com)
- 4 Tips When You Find Thinking Hard! (theengagingbrand.typepad.com)
- Stop thinking and more doing. How? (ask.metafilter.com)