Free up innovation

Do you have what it takes to make the most of your next opportunity and boldly go where no one has gone before? New ideas abound – you just have to free up innovation in your organisation. Many organisations that I work with cite innovation as one of their values – something I am pretty sure is rarely true. However, even if innovation is not an authentic company value, it doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of the next opportunity that comes along.

Innovation can be a strategy to kick start your company engine; it doesn’t have to be an ongoing proposition. Of course, there is a catch. You have to be fearless. Being innovative means you have to go first. Scary proposition, huh? So, have you always desired to boldly go where no one in your industry has gone before?

The really good news is, even though every company can’t be 3M and dedicate a percentage of every employee’s time to looking for the next great innovative idea, chances are the people in your organisation do have plenty of innovative ideas if you ask them (and the added benefit being when you ask them you get a spike in engagement and energy – not a bad bonus).

But in case you are feeling your creative juices running a bit low, let’s see if I can help the process. There are plenty of great examples out there when you look around a bit. In fact when you Google search “innovation” it returns 137 million entries!

Leading the charge on coming up with “remarkable ideas” is Seth Godin and his Purple Cow – there is lots of food for thought packed in between the covers of this little gem of a book.

Think it’s hard for you to come up with an innovative idea – try figuring out how to grow pineapples faster!

Grab a seat and join others who want to embed some innovation in their daily practices – The Innovation Network is a mine of good ideas. Another resource is Innovation Tools where you will find lots of tools and articles to help you on your way.

And lastly (at least for today), from one of the leading “ideas” organisations – Ideo – is a deck of cards designed to share their methods and help you innovate.

So what is stopping you? Carpe diem!
See you next week.

Alignment is Michel’s passion. Through her work with Brand Alignment Group she helps organisations align who they are, with what they do and say to build more authentic and sustainable brands.

To read more Michel Hogan blogs, click here.