You tell yourself you want change. You buy the books, attend the seminars, and make the plans. Then Monday morning arrives, and you’re right back where you started. This isn’t a character flaw; it’s human nature. You love the status quo because your brain is designed to keep you exactly where you are.
The principle is as true for people as it is for organizations.
Your team isn’t innovating. You know it; they know it. Everyone’s going through the motions, delivering the same solutions they delivered last quarter, last year.
Over the weekend, I attended a family gathering. One of my family members is a software engineer, and he mentioned that he has been looking for work for some time. He mentioned he was taking a Udemy course on Deep Learning to help his cause.
When most people think of innovation, they picture flashy new technologies or breakthrough products. However, in reality, innovation extends far beyond what you sell. The most successful companies treat innovation as a system, one that can impact every part of the business, from how they operate to how they serve customers and generate revenue.
Everyone’s talking about AI replacing jobs. Wrong conversation. The biggest opportunity isn’t automation, it’s augmentation. While your competitors scramble to automate yesterday’s processes, you should be using AI to unlock tomorrow’s breakthroughs.
Ever notice how the most memorable moments in your life often involve an element of surprise? That unexpected job offer that changed your career trajectory. The random coffee shop encounter that led to a lifelong friendship. The spur-of-the-moment road trip that you still talk about years later.
We all talk about wanting more innovation in our companies. Leaders invest in fancy innovation labs, run brainstorming workshops, and plaster inspirational quotes about “thinking different” on office walls. Yet, despite all this enthusiasm, truly innovative ideas still struggle to take root in many organizations.
