What do you think of when you hear the word innovation? I immediately think of Apple products. Airplanes. Skyscrapers. We think of the grand scale result. But do you know where those grand solutions began? Within the courageous heart of an individual who overcome the fear and shipped their vulnerability out the door.
We all love the word innovation. It sounds exciting. Potential. Possibility. But how many of us actually foster and encourage innovation in our teams?
Did you know that Google allocates 25% of an employee’s hours to work on whatever they want to? It’s paid company time to be curious, to explore, to see what happens. Do you know what came out of that? The Google search engine.
Sometimes I fear many of us are paying our employees and team members to maintain the status quo – to simply get work done and not create problems for anyone. But innovation comes at a cost. Breakthrough teams need to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.
I’m not going to give you a long list of steps in this post. Matter of fact, I want you to do one thing. Innovation doesn’t need to be grand. Actually, starting simple is best. Because then you don’t get overwhelmed before you start.
Get a piece of paper and a pencil. Of course, you can use a computer. But I’m a firm believer that disconnecting from the digital will open up new pathways in your brain. But I’m no neuroscientist. In one sitting, I want you to come up with 15 new ideas for your team. Not what you’re currently doing, but something brand new. Don’t judge your ideas. Don’t evaluate if they’re possible. This isn’t a tasklist. It’s a way of giving your brain (and heart) permission to dream.
Now, do this every single day for a week. No pressure to do anything with these ideas. You’re simply collecting them in a notebook. After a week, you’ll have written down 105 innovative ideas. Of course, you won’t implement all of these. But you’re 105 ideas closer to breakthrough than you were before.
Now, take that list and pick one single item that you’re going to implement this week.
This is an incredible, simple way to break out of a creative and cultural rut. Creating a discipline out of this will cause you to find innovative solutions to problems more often. You won’t be reacting to problems, you’ll be proactive about them. And you’ll have a handy dandy list that you can always refer to.
Are you ready?
