In the last few posts, we are grinding on innovation. So in this post, I am addressing the question – how to start innovating?
So, what must businesses do to start innovating?
In the last post, we covered that innovation starts by asking questions and challenging the status quo. However, it is a little more complex than that!
The problem is that when we view our domain from our viewpoint, we hardly find anything to improve or innovate.
For example, suppose we ask a Project Manager and a Doctor for areas to improve in Projects and clinical procedures, respectively. There is hardly much that we are likely to find.
Why?
Because they view the world from the same pair of eyes and assume everything they do is normal. However, outsiders often turn things upside down when they view specific domains with a fresh pair of eyes.
For example, see what happened to the music industry when Steve Jobs looked at it. Similarly, how, Elon Musk challenged traditional auto and space exploration.
So, the question is, what can you do?
Here are a few thoughts:
- Encourage staff and stakeholders to ask questions. Develop a culture of promoting and supporting people who ask questions to challenge the status quo.
- Get fresh blood within your organisation. Get the new employees, even fresh graduates, to understand the current processes and challenge the status quo.
- Adding to the above point, promote secondments. Get Finance staff to work for sales and vice-versa.
- Hire a professional consultant to do a health check of your organisation.
Look, there is no excuse for not innovating. So, keep grinding and trying different things to challenge the status quo and innovate.
