Here are the 16 most obvious means I have found that destroy business innovation.
Maintain the status quo
Working with few new activities and new environments is a guaranteed way to limit innovation and creativity. The true enemy of innovation is acceptance of the status quo.
Accept average quality
Have you occasionally noticed that you are spending most of your time on the wrong priorities? Doing much more but everything at an average quality? No time for innovation in anything? A great path to maintaining the status quo, isn’t it?
Limited view of imagination
Are you constraining your view of what imagination and innovation really are? Shouldn’t be very many constraints should there?
Overly reward innovation
Are you going overboard recognizing and rewarding your innovation? That can constrain additional creative thinking and improvement ideas.
Always evaluate imagination
Do you evaluate your imagination, creativity, and innovation? Again this can limit your out-of-box thinking.
Limit experiences
Do you lack the ability to explore and try new things? Does it make you feel uncomfortable?
Follow the rules
Are you one that follows every rule? Never question and overlook those that make no sense.
Don’t practice
Hate to practice and use new skills? Don’t think one can practice and improve skills like imagination and innovation?
Don’t collaborate
Avoid collaboration because you worry that others will recognize your undeveloped imagination and innovative skills.
Limit play and experimentation
Are you one that works all the time? Believes that play is not an ingredient of work. And doesn’t like to experiment with new ideas because you abhor mistakes and failure?
Don’t worry about finishing what you start
Like to keep lots of balls in the air? Good at multitasking? But your record of completion of tasks is not that great.
Don’t question authority
Do you avoid questioning why things are done the way they are? Avoid questioning the decisions of bosses up the line.
Don’t think broad
Have a problem with a vision of what could be, especially in new fields of endeavor? Are you lacking confidence in expanding your horizon and setting aggressive goals?
Limit your questions
Believe that questions can be a nuisance to those around you.
Fear bad ideas
Do you fear making mistakes and surfacing bad ideas? Don’t like failures?
Don’t stretch yourself
Warm ups’
You are not comfortable with going beyond your current boundaries. You are happy with where you currently are.
But here is the bottom line …
An example. Over his lifetime Da Vinci created 13,000 pages of sketches and notes. 13,000 pages. By hand, on individual sheets of paper. And how many masterpieces by perhaps the most creative thinker of all time? Probably 3-5 depending on who you ask. Persistence is key, isn’t it? Lack of persistence is perhaps this is the most important reason we have less creative people, isn’t it?
