The problem is never how to get new ideas into your mind, but how to eliminate the old ideas. What is the difference between a good idea and a great idea? Good ideas come along all the time and help people solve minor problems in work and daily life. Great ideas appear less frequently. Generating ideas like these require more work to execute.
Great ideas aren’t necessarily the result of highly-paid think tanks or drug-induced vision quests in the desert. Sometimes they are unexpected moments of inspiration that help keep the napkin companies in business.
Can you think of your last unexpected moment of inspiration? We’d love to hear it … please add it to comments below.
Related: The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture
The big challenge of generating great ideas is freeing you from the conventional, mundane thoughts that occupy most of your brain time.
How do organizations come up with new ideas? And how do they use those ideas to create successful new products, services, businesses, and solutions?
To answer these questions, a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York spent time observing radical innovation projects such as IBM’s silicon-germanium devices, GE’s digital X-ray, and DuPont’s biodegradable plastics. Their key finding? Most of the ideas behind these projects came from “happy accidents” rather than some ongoing process to generate ideas.
In more than a few cases, individuals or small groups were simply “freelancing,” working on ideas on their own initiative rather than being directed by some “new venture” board or other idea management system.
Given these results, let’s examine 10 myths of generating new ideas:
Generating ideas … people love change
Myth
Many people believe everybody loves to change and be changed.
Fact
The simple fact is that there is a ton of people who resist any kind of change. They are very risk adverse and change makes them very uncomfortable.
How to generate innovative ideas … rewards
Myth
Many people believe that the best ideas come where the best incentive rewards are offered.
Fact
Daniel Pink discussed research in his book “Drive” where rewards were shown to have a modest effect on generating new ideas at best and negative effect in the worst situations. Pink demonstrated that with the complex and more creative style of 21stcentury jobs, traditional rewards can actually lead to less of what is wanted and more of what is not wanted.
Must have completely new?
Completely new
Myth
The belief is that most ideas are composed of totally new thoughts.
Fact
The simple fact is new ideas are built from the combining of older ideas. The novelty comes from the application of the idea or combination of idea and application, not the idea itself.
Activities to generate ideas … past experience and expertise
Myth
Team members often sit back in hope that the smartest or most experienced among them will come through. Smart is certainly important, as is experience, but the best ideas from those on the fringes of the subject area or an entirely different subject area expertise.
Fact
Those who continuously come up with the newest ideas are ones who are great at cultivating minds from different fields and are able to most efficiently connect the dots. Old lessons from a different field applied to the new field.
We can certainly find many examples of teams where cohesiveness abound.
Fact
But the simple fact is that conflict is equally as important as cohesiveness in generating ideas. Many companies build conflict into the ideation process for this reason.
The saying goes that if you have the best mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.
Fact
This path is not the usual case, however. Often the best ideas are rejected initially. There are many examples … here are two good ones. Kodak invented the digital camera and never took it to market. Smith Corona built a superb word processor and yet decided to stay with the typewriter, its bread and butter.
Epiphany
Myth
Many assume that the best insights come to us in a flash of brilliance.
Fact
The best ideas typically require a time of incubation in our subconscious. We do best when we constantly shift from one task to another to allow our minds to do something different for our best idea germination.
In your genes
Myth
The best ideas come from the best combination of genes.
Fact
No evidence supports an “idea” gene or personality type. On the other hand, there is a wealth of evidence that shows there is potential inside of everyone. The best place to see this is in young children.
Best ideas always win
Myth
The cream always rises to the top. And the best ideas are like the cream.
Fact
But the simple fact is that the best ideas are not necessarily or readily recognized as the best. Most often, they never get to the winner’s circle.
The lone wolf
Myth
Most people tend to believe that the best ideas come from single, very smart individuals.
Fact
The truth is that most breakthrough ideas come from collaborative teams. For example, Thomas Edison had 15 other inventors working with him. Likewise, Michelangelo had 13 other painters helping paint the Sistine Chapel. The best teams are diverse and include both new and more experienced collaborators.
If you are looking for additional resources in creativity and innovation, one of my favorite experts is Gregg Fraley. You’ll find lots of good stories and examples to learn from in his blog.
Summary
As we change at a faster and faster pace, ideas adequate yesterday are no longer are good enough. And with digital disruption facing an increasing number of industries, most firms must come up with the best ideas for change or move to a slow failure. The myths of new ideas must be set aside to let the new idea facts take over.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
It’s up to you to keep improving your ability to learning to learn. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
It’s up to you to keep improving your continuous learning from all around in your environment.
Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on continuous learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Thinking about improving the adaptation of your business to the changing elements around you? You have a large innovation continuum that you should consider.
Where is your focus? Invention? Innovation? Creativity? Or maybe somewhere else on the continuum?
More to know: Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
We are always surprised by the number of our people that don’t make a distinction between these concepts. Do you make the distinction?
A clear distinction and your appropriate action focus will definitely make a difference to your business. Let’s us explain why.
Creativity is your ability to imagine new concepts. It does not require value creation. That is why when we run brainstorming sessions, we do not allow concepts to be screened for merit.
We are being divergent and looking for all possible ideas. Creativity plays an important role in both invention and innovation but is only the front end component of each.
Invention and innovation. They have been so thoroughly misused that it is hard to tell the difference between them. Yet they could not be more different.
Innovation is the process through which value is created and delivered to a community in the form of a new solution. We have purposely chosen to frame the definition as a process. It can also be used to describe a new product or service … the output of the process.
In either case, the key elements of the meaning are valuing delivery and newness.
Invention is very distinct from innovation. When a new idea surfaces or a new patent is filed, that is an invention. It is the classic eureka moment when a person has an idea for the better mousetrap and sets about creating it, putting off concern about who will buy it for another day.
Business model innovation is a source of competitive advantage that few companies proactively pursue. It, however, is not necessary to entirely replace a business model or radically reinvent the business in order to capture value from innovation.
Business activity can be viewed as a continuum from incremental improvement to the invention of an entirely new business Between these extremes are three additional levels of innovation, distinguished by the degree to which they redefine the existing business model.
Focuses on re-engineering the existing business model—doing what we already do, only better, faster or cheaper.
Although important to the ongoing success of the business, these efforts create fewer consumer and competitive benefits than innovative activities, and they have little to no disruptive effect in the market.
Single-dimension innovation
This represents a pioneering change in an existing business model. It is designed to deliver substantially enhanced consumer benefits and financial performance. This level of innovation causes some degree of disturbance in the market (for example Amazon’s e-commerce process innovations).
Examples of innovation … serial innovation
Serial innovation builds on the success of an initial business innovation by expanding the scope of what is considered for future innovation.
Through continuous adaptation of the business model, the company harvests progressively more of the benefit of the original innovation (e.g., the expansion of Amazon’s move from books and music to other products and services).
Multi-dimensioninnovation
Multi-dimensional innovation creates a substantially new way of doing business in order to optimize the market opportunity. Innovation at this level is essentially building something completely new from scratch.
It affects change in multiple components of the business model simultaneously. Business model innovation often propels a company beyond the boundaries of its original marketplace through the offer of products and services previously unavailable to customers.
It typically requires new processes, organizational structures, and distribution channels. Business model innovation disrupts existing patterns of consumption and competition (for example, Dell’s direct-to-consumer customer selected design business model).
The business invention refers to a revolutionary change or strategic breakthroughs that create entirely new businesses. Such inventions represent “white space” in the market.
They transcend customer desires by serving needs and wants that have not yet been articulated.
They change the basis of competition by creating value where none existed before (for example, Apple’s pioneering the i-phone).
The greater the degree of innovation (i.e., the farther right on the continuum), the greater the competitive disruptions and the higher the potential rewards for consumers and stakeholders.
For most companies, however, applying innovative thinking to the company’s entire business model is too difficult to conceive, too risky to undertake and too hard to implement on a recurring basis. Innovations that truly revolutionize an industry come along only about once a decade.
Most of us, therefore, primarily focus on those business application innovations that provide customer benefits based on the company’s existing competitive advantages. These innovations do not require recreating the wheel or predicting the future.
They do require a genuine focus on the customer and a commitment to more effectively meeting customer requirements.
Here are the key assumptions we use in characterizing business application innovations:
Innovations are driven by the market
As we have discussed, shifts in demographics, social, economic and/or technological conditions often precede or accompany innovation in an industry.
True innovation represents an advance for consumers
Great business innovators improve the quality of life for their customers. As a result, they also have an impact on competitors and the structure and performance of the whole industry.
For example, “category killers” and supercenters forever changed consumers’ expectations about selection and price and as a result, shopping behavior and store preferences.
Inventors often aren’t the winners
An innovative idea doesn’t necessarily have to originate with you. Often, it is a new application of an existing idea. As the above retail innovation examples illustrate, inventors often aren’t the winners in the end.
Innovation in often means being a fast follower rather than the originator of a new way of doing business. Walmart’s supercenter format was not an original idea—the basic concept had been operating successfully for 25 years in Europe.
But it represented an innovation for Walmart as used in the context of its own business and its own market. Innovators teach us that to succeed wedon’t need genius as much as curiosity and determination.
Innovation continuum … all strategies eventually run out of gas
In an environment characterized by frequent and significant shifts in resource and consumption markets, just doing better what you do today is not enough.
A focus on matching and beating your rivals results in strategies that are all too similar and competition that is based on incremental improvements rather than breakthrough ideas. Competing head-to-head is intense.
Innovative companies break from the competitive pack by staking out fundamentally new market space. Successful innovation can expand the market, build new markets, as well as increase market share for the innovator.
Continuous business innovation is the key not only to value creation for consumers but also to wealth creation for stakeholders and the true long-term success of the firm.
The bottom line
The truth is that innovation is never a single event. It requires the discovery of new insights, the engineering of solutions around those insights, and then the transformation of an industry or field. Technology does not produce progress by itself, we need to find important problems for it to solve and then must change how we work in order to take advantage of it.
What about your abilities to innovate to shape your future? What position on the innovation continuum do you use? What key experiences can you share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add below?
It’s up to you to keep improving attention to your innovation.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy in each of these steps to improving your leadership?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Peter Drucker once was quoted: Within five years, if you’re in the same business you are in now, you’re going to be out of business. Your success with building a change and adaptability culture in your business depends not only on coming up with great ideas and making them happen but also with establishing motivators for creating adaptability.
No business attribute is more important today as that of adaptability, as many, many businesses are on the brink of irrelevance … unless they change as fast as change itself. You need to have and try many creative business ideas as often as possible … take to heart what Peter Drucker had to say in the quote shown above.
A crucial point to remember is that you can’t dictate change by mandate. You can’t overpower, but must attract people and empower them so that they can take ownership of the cause and make it their own. You need to accept that people will do things for their own reasons, not for yours.
Most of all, remember that every action has to have a clear purpose and be directed at influencing specific institutions. So before taking any action, ask two questions: Who are we mobilizing, and to influence what?
That is why this needs to be a part of the culture of your business.
It’s also important to recognize that culture comes from the people—it is the people. Think about the individuals within your organization—what are their personalities like?
Who are they outside of work? What tickles their fancy? All of these things lend to the culture of your organization, and ultimately your products
We live in a business world accelerating at a dizzying speed and teeming with ruthless competition. As most of the tangible advantages of the past have become commoditized, creativity has become the currency of success.
A 2010 study of 1,500 CEOs indicated that leaders rank creativity as the No. 1 leadership attribute needed for prosperity. It’s the one thing that can’t be outsourced; the one thing that’s the lifeblood of sustainable competitive advantage.
Unfortunately, most companies fail to unleash their most valuable resources: human creativity, imagination, and original thinking. They lack a systematic approach to building a culture of innovation and then wonder why they keep getting beaten to the punch.
Creative change and adaptability could become the main strengths of your company and the pillars of its long-term growth and success.
Here are some useful tips on how to help move toward a change and adaptability culture in your business:
We are big believers in change and adaptation. They contribute heavily to creative minds. We’re first curious about something, and it’s that curiosity that drives us to create new ideas.
Try to think of inventors who created something without first being curious or imaginative. Difficult isn’t it?
Create a spirit of collaboration
Your employees should feel like members of one big family. They are the biggest assets of your business.
Creativity doesn’t often happen in a vacuum. As the author Steve Johnson says, chance favors the connected minds. When people are together, talking, laughing, thinking, exploring — they’re going to throw out ideas.
These ideas trigger something in someone else’s mind, and it snowballs. Before long, this group of folks has developed a creative change that wouldn’t have been possible without the collective collaboration.
Don’t fall prey to the myth that only some people are adaptable and you’re not one of the chosen few. We are all adaptable; it’s just a matter of figuring out in what way.
So find things you’re curious about and that are interesting to you, use your imagination a little, stay motivated and work at it, and surround yourself with others who are doing the same.
Creativity drives change and adaptability and can be taught. There are many courses that teach people different creative techniques.
Give your employees the opportunity to acquire skills that will help them become more productive and proficient in what they are doing.
Encourage new ideas to flourish
People should be encouraged and inspired to openly and freely share ideas for change. There should be no censorship in the creative process and in ideas for change.
Welcome everyone to contribute with their ideas for improving, from the couriers and drivers to the top managers.
Adaptability … maximize diversity
Ziba, a top innovation-consulting firm in Portland, has an “Ambassador Program,” which allows employees to spend three months working in other disciplines, known as “tribes.” During that time, the ambassador team member participates as part of those teams.
This helps to create an understanding of another world. That diversity of thought and perspective, in turn, fuels connection and adaptability. It also translates to better business results.
Diversity in all its shapes, colors, and flavors helps build a culture of change. The diversity of people and thought; diversity of work experiences, religions, nationalities, hobbies, political beliefs, races, sexual preference, age, musical tastes, and even favorite sports teams. The more diversity the better.
Adaptability in business … encourage autonomy
We all prefer control over our environments. According to a 2008 study by Harvard University, there is a direct correlation between people who have the ability to call their own shots and the value of their change and adaptability.
An employee who has to run every tiny detail by her boss for approval will quickly become numb to the environment of change.
Granting autonomy involves extending trust. By definition, your team may make decisions you would have made differently.
The key is to provide a clear message of what results you are looking for or what problem you want the team to solve. From there, you need to extend trust and let them do their best work.
Start small
ITW is a diversified manufacturing company that produces a wide array of products from industrial packaging to power systems and electronics to food equipment to construction products.
It is a highly profitable company nearly 100 years old. Yet this big, old company, which is nestled in a traditional industry, thinks small.
The leaders at ITW believe that being nimble, hungry, and entrepreneurial are the ingredients for business success. As a result, any time a business unit reaches $200 million in revenue, the division “mutates” into two $100 million units. Like an amoeba, the unit subdivides so it stays hungry and nimble.
The company would rather have 10 independently run and innovative $100 million units than a single, bureaucratic, and clunky $1 billion unit. Guess what? It’s a great environment of change and adaptation.
Companies that can stay more curious and nimble, have a better ability to change and adapt more easily. They have a stronger sense of urgency and are not afraid to embrace change. They put their curiosity, imagination, and creativity to work
Adaptability skills … motivate by sharing
Most of the time, you’ve got to want to be adaptable. You’ve got to work at the change to be able to change.
But every once in a while someone will walk into my office, look around at the walls and ask how I came up with some of the ideas. Or we’ll be in a meeting and something will click for me as I’m scribbling in my little black notebook.
What most people don’t know is that I actually work on it. Yes and I actually practice. I think people think you’ve either got it or you don’t, but I think everyone adapts in their own way.
So I started doing things to challenge myself to change. Sometimes they were business-related. Other times they weren’t. And now I have an arsenal of things that I do on a regular basis to stretch my mind. It’s trying to make creative thinking and practice a consistent habit.
Passion starts with leaders
Believe in what you preach. Give yourself 100% to the cause. Be honest if you want to be accepted. Lead by providing the example. Do not just lead – inspire!
With a team full of passion, you can accomplish just about anything. Without it, your employees become mere clock-punching automatons.
Celebrate even small successes
Social norms in any culture are established by what is celebrated and what is punished. Consider more narrowly how they function within an institution.
Nearly every business’s mission statement includes words about “innovation,” yet risk-taking and change are often punished instead of rewarded.
Rewards come in many forms, and often the monetary ones are the least important.
Celebrating change and adaptation is not only about handing out bonus checks for great ideas—although that is a good start. It should also be celebrated with praise (both public and private), career opportunities, and perks.
In short, if you want your team to be creative, you need to establish an environment that celebrating their successes.
Foster risk-taking
Zappos as a company is known as much for its culture as for its innovative business model. The company has built a business that is growing rapidly by allowing individuals the freedom to take creative risks without that overwhelming sense of fear or judgment.
They tell their employees to say what you think, even if it is controversial. Make tough decisions without agonizing excessively. Take smart risks. Question actions inconsistent with our values.
Another interesting example: A software company in Boston gives each team member two “corporate get-out-of-jail-free” cards each year. The cards allow the holder to take risks and suffer no repercussions for mistakes associated with them.
At annual reviews, leaders question their team members if the cards are not used. It is a great way to encourage risk-taking and experimentation.
Think this company comes up with amazing ideas? Absolutely.
Foster a changing climate
Always look for alternatives, improvements, and non-standard ways of solving problems. Many of the ideas that your team will come up with will be unfit, some of them will be excellent and a few will be brilliant.
Sometimes one brilliant idea is all it takes to make a huge business success.
Readily accept mistakes and failure
There is no success without failure. Ask any successful person and they will confirm that they have failed in life but that their failures made them stronger and even more determined to go on.
It is perfectly OK to fail as long as we learn from our own mistakes. Your employees should not fear failure because it will kill their desire to create new and unusual ideas.
In many companies, people are so afraid of making mistakes that they don’t pursue their dreams. The simply follow the rules and keep their heads down, which drives nothing but mediocrity.
James Dyson, the inventor of the Dyson Vacuum cleaner, “failed” at more than 5,100 prototypes before getting it just right. In fact, nearly every breakthrough innovation in history came after countless setbacks, mistakes, and “failures.”
The great innovators and achievers weren’t necessarily smarter or inherently more talented. They simply released their fear of failure and kept trying. They didn’t let setbacks or misfires extinguish their curiosity, imagination, and ability to change.
Failing means taking risks and increasing the rate of experimentation… and exploring. Some bets will pay off; some will fail. The key is to fail quickly. The speed of business has increased dramatically and every minute counts.
The best businesses try lots of ideas and let the losers go quickly and with no remorse.
One of my favorite experts in the field of creativity and innovation is Gregg Fraley. You’ll find lots of good stories and examples to learn from in his blog.
As you can see, some of these ideas do not take much time and money to implement. Start from small and transform your company step by step.
Creating a change and adaptation culture is a process that takes time, but as the first creative ideas become reality, and the first results show up, both you and your employees will appreciate the positive effects.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step.
And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.
It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with adaptability, change, innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you.
In this case, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to continually improving your continuous learning?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Are you one that believes that creativity can be learned? I am among that group. Always on the lookout for awesome examples of the topics I write about. And always trying to keep an open mind. Today I will share the best example of creative activities I have ever seen.
This is the example of Paul Smith and his typewriter art. And note that Paul is not an ordinary learner of creativity or art for that matter.
You see, Paul has suffered from cerebral palsy for most of his life. Quite crippling for Paul. Here is an inspiring video that tells the story of Paul and his creativity. It is only 4 minutes and well worth your time.
Related: Ten Myths of Generating New Ideas
What did you think of the video? Paul Smith and his creativity are awesome, isn’t it? Demonstrates that contrary to what most people believe, creativity is not limited to a specific segment of the population.
It can be taught, nurtured, and enhanced. It is not genetically limited to the gifted ones of the population. Creativity is not a talent most people are born with. It is more like an action drive. Do you think Paul Smith has an active drive? I certainly do.
So what are the skills you need to acquire and/or develop to improve your creativity? Consider these useful habits for your skill development:
Creative activities … curiosity and imagination
We are big believers in curiosity and imagination. They contribute heavily to creative minds. We’re first curious about something, and it’s that curiosity that drives us to create. Try to think of inventors who created something without first being curious or imaginative. Difficult isn’t it?
There was a study done recently wherein jazz musicians’ brains were monitored while they were improvising during gigs. Long, boring, tedious, academic story short — these musicians’ brains had essentially learned to “turn off” that little thing in there that tells you that this won’t work or will fail.
So without that stopping them, their imagination thrived, and you’ve heard many of the amazing results.
List of creative activities.
Observing
Carefully watch things around you to help gain insights into, and ideas for, new ways of doing things.
Pay particular attention to areas outside your natural areas of interest. That worked for Paul, who gained his insights from his own efforts.
You’re as creative as anyone
I’ve heard people tell me, “I’m just not that creative.” I don’t believe it. Paul Smith didn’t believe it either. You are creative and ingenious and resourceful and brilliant.
Creativity doesn’t have to be defined by the bounds of art or literature. Your creativity can reveal itself in so many different ways: parenting, relationships, wardrobe, problem-solving, ideas, shoelaces, or cooking as examples.
Everyone is capable of creativity. Paul shows us that, doesn’t he?
Never underestimate the value of a creative outlet
Is the work you’re doing feeding your need for creativity? There are periods of life when it might not. In those times, it’s so incredibly useful to have a creative outlet on which to rely.
The psychological research supports these types of creative pursuits. In a San Francisco State study measuring employees with a creative side project and those without, those with a creative hobby were more likely to be helpful, collaborative, and creative with their job performance. Best of all, side projects are unlike whatever you’d experience at work.
They’re low-risk, low-pressure, and something you love doing.
Creative activities for adults.
Creative activity examples … embrace constraints
Though it might seem counterintuitive, constraints can help you be even more creative. Embrace these constraints, whichever way they come—constraints on your time, your resources, and your energy. Even your physical abilities, like Paul Smith.
Often you can rekindle your creativity by adding constraints to your problem space. Have you ever been successful at trying this technique? If you’ve got 20 minutes to be creative, it might be all the time you need. Who knows what you will fall in love with, so be persistent.
Trying and failing is better than never trying at all
What holds you back from creating something?
For many of us, it’s fear. Fear that something might not be good enough, unique enough or novel enough.
Overcoming this fear is a huge and important step. Start here: It’s okay to fail. In fact, it can be helpful to create something silly, strange, ugly, or useless because you’ve taken the step that so many people never do. You’ve created.
Others will be better and that’s ok
I sometimes get the urge to stop and drop everything when I see someone doing something I love better than I can do it. Turns out, it’s not best to always trying to be the best.
Have you heard the phrase, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room”? I think this can hold true for the authors you read, the musicians you admire, and the creatives you follow.
Set up shop in a room where you will be motivated to achieve great things and to grow your creativity.
Experimenting
Constantly visit new places, try new things, seek new information and understanding, and learn from new experiences.
Join new social/professional activities beyond your normal groups and spheres of influence.
Lean heavily on your intuition
Intuition is something that is never wise to ignore because it comes from deep within your subconscious and is derived from a combination of your previous life experiences. If everyone else is telling you “yes” but your gut is telling you otherwise, it’s usually for a good reason.
When faced with difficult decisions, seek out all the information you can find, become as knowledgeable as you possibly can, and then listen to your intuition and instincts.
Create without thinking
This is maybe my favorite lesson on creativity. Create the things that delight you, entertain you, and motivate you. Whatever you create let it be something you love. Create something that you enjoy, not something you’re under contract to make or something you think others would find pretty cool.
For one, you may lose the motivation to finish it if things don’t go your way. But more importantly, there’s power in creating from a place of love and enjoyment. Your finished product will absolutely reflect the joy and happiness you put into it.
Spend daily downtime daydreaming
Creative types know that daydreaming is anything but a waste of their time. While structured routines are important for the actual process of creating, our minds need downtime filled with the freedom to wander.
Neuroscientists have found that daydreaming involves the same brain processes associated with imagination and creative thinking. According to psychologist Rebecca L. McMillan, who recently co-authored a research paper titled Ode to Positive Constructive Daydreaming, daydreaming can aid in the “creative incubation” of ideas and solutions to complex problems.
Example of learning creativity … study the work of masters
If you study the lives of enough successful creators, it becomes obvious that most world-class performers in all fields – musicians, entrepreneurs, artists, dancers, etc. – had incredible mentors, coaches or role models who made the activity of practice worthwhile and rewarding.
If you can speak with a mentor face to face, that’s incredible – do so! But keep in mind that just observing a mentor works wonders too. When we observe someone we want to learn from, and we have a crystal clear idea of what we want to create for ourselves, it unlocks a tremendous amount of motivation.
Turn life’s obstacles around
Many of the most iconic novels, songs, and inventions of all time were inspired by gut-wrenching pain and heartbreak. Therefore, the silver lining of these great challenges is that they were the catalyst to the creation of epic masterpieces.
When our view of the world as a safe place, or as a certain type of place, has been shattered, we are forced to reboot our perspective on things. We suddenly have the opportunity to look out to the periphery and see things with a new, fresh set of beginner’s eyes, which is extremely beneficial to creativity.
The bottom line
Don’t fall prey to the myth that only some people are creative and you’re people are not of the chosen few. We are all creative; it’s just a matter of figuring out in what way, very much like Paul Smith.
So find things you’re curious about and are interesting to you, use your imagination a little, stay motivated and work at it, and surround yourself with others who are doing the same.
There are people in nearly every career field who make each day a work of art simply by the way they have mastered their craft. In other words, almost everyone is an artist in some way.
The important thing is to not let your self-judgment keep you from doing your thing and sharing your creative gift with the world.
Need some help in improving the creativity of you and your staff? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors?
Call today for aFREEconsultation or aFREEquote. Learn about some options for creativity workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new creative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
Social networking is not about farming followers, it’s a way of cultivating relationships. Interesting statement from Hubspot. Have you taken notice of Starbuck’s creativity and innovation? When choosing to learn from others creative strategies, it is always helpful to choose one of the top dogs, isn’t it?
They have been successfully executing their social media marketing plan since the first days of social media and social commerce. For over 5 years, and their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What social media design techniques work best for your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a conversation.
With more than 18,000 retail locations in 60 countries, the coffeehouse is the picture of success.
Starbucks rode the baby boomer trend in the 1990s, the swelling ranks of mid-age professionals that created the need for a third place, ‘ an affordable luxury’ where people could share and enjoy a cup of coffee with friends and colleagues, away from work and home.
In our opinion, the company has inserted itself into the American urban landscape more quickly and craftily than any retail company in history. It has forever changed the way companies market themselves to customers. Here is how we feel they have been so successful:
Market segmentation
The company has stayed with the upper-scale of the coffee market, competing on comfort rather than convenience, which are the case with its closest competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts.
Related post: Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes good coffee, quality service, and a nice environment to hang around. They keep their attention on paying attention to the details of great execution and service.
Creativity and innovation examples … mobile and mobile payments
“We have to keep pushing innovation inside and outside of our stores, and we have to be as relevant for our customers on their phone, as we are inside the Starbucks experience,” said Schultz, in Geekwire. “And I think that is exactly what we are doing.”
“By further enhancing our already world-class digital technologies, through the introduction of capabilities like Mobile Order & Pay and soon-to-be delivery, and expanding our loyalty program, we are driving traffic as reflected in the 4 percent growth in traffic in Q3—bringing in new customers and deepening our connections to our existing customers, elevating the Starbucks brand and our customer experience, and streamlining our in-store operations.”
In many cases, a mobile campaign is mostly a novelty and consumers are excited by the newness of using their phones in a different way. But back in January, Starbucks introduced a program that made it easier for customers to buy coffee. The brand was ahead of the curve on mobile payments, a segment that is still in its infancy in the U.S.
In March, Starbucks revealed that the plan, which relied on customers using the Starbucks Card Mobile iPhone and BlackBerry apps, was a success. Some 3 million people at that point had paid using the app. For customers, there’s a clear benefit to using the technology — it lets you pay faster.
Starbucks is doing 6 million in mobile app transactions weekly
While many mobile payment apps like Google Wallet have struggled to gain traction with consumers, the Starbucks mobile payments app stands out as a success.
At 6 million average weekly transactions in the U.S., it now accounts for a full 15% of transactions made at the U.S. Starbucks-operated stores.
The Starbucks app is on track to process over $1.5 billion in payment volume in the U.S. in 2014, according to our estimates. In the second quarter, it accounted for 15% of the transactions in U.S. company-operated stores, averaging 6 million transactions per week.
Starbucks stores are everywhere, coffee is purchased habitually, the app incentivizes regular purchases through its rewards-loyalty program, and the app works on the majority of smartphones. The app’s success is not due to the ease of payment with a phone. So it has succeeded despite the fact that it is not more convenient than credit or debit cards or cash.
Importance of creativity and innovation … new social media innovations
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Starbucks has certainly taken a leadership position. Their social media strategy is built around their company website and 6 additional social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, YouTube, and My Starbucks Ideas. We will review Starbuck’s social media strategy in detail below.
So, one way to reward customer loyalty is to provide an app.
In-app customer loyalty programs can truly help businesses go that extra mile in customer retention, encouraging customers to perform certain actions that will grant them a special benefit, such as a discount on their next purchase, VIP access to your new collection, or a coupon to redeem on other services.
An excellent example of how apps can help brands establish long-lasting relationships with their customers is the Starbucks Official App. The app combines a highly intuitive interface with a tailor-made dashboard to offer an enhanced, more personal user experience.
The Starbucks app also keeps users connected to their card, so they can just scan to pay while earning Stars in the My Starbucks Rewards™ program. By accessing a dedicated section in their dashboard, users can track the Stars collected and redeem their rewards in the loyalty program.
Moreover, the gift section within the app allows users to send gifts and coupons to their friends via the app. This, of course, generates a profitable word-of-mouth campaign around the brand, using happy customers to spread the word via an engaging mobile app. Win-win!
See this article on Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study
Starbucks’ new “#sipface” campaign has made a huge splash in the Instagram world. Launched to promote the new Frappuccino Happy Hour menu, the campaign encouraged fans to post creative pictures of their “#sipface” on Instagram which were curated and displayed on Frappuccino.com. Starbucks has been ranked the “fifth-largest brand on Facebook with 34 million fans,” and has over 3.6 million followers on Twitter.
Starbuck’s business crowdsourcing, via its My Starbucks Idea website, has been a huge success. Why may you ask? Because they have combined the concepts of change, experimentation, social media, customer engagement, and market research and made the results key components of both their brand as well as their marketing strategy. Have you given My Starbucks Idea a try? What did you think?
Starbucks has clearly embraced the digital realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in social media.
Why is Starbucks such a social media marketing success story? There are seven key reasons their social media strategy is a successful difference maker for their marketing campaign:
Here is our take on why:
Partnership examples
The New York Times top news of the day and a selection of articles will be available free via Starbucks mobile app for 10 million My Starbucks Rewards loyalty members, along with the opportunity to earn “Stars” through paid digital and print subscriptions to the pub.
“We see a future in which the Starbucks retail experience seamlessly extends to the mobile devices our millions of customers carry with them every day,” said Schultz, in a press release. “Our relationship with The New York Times is the perfect example of bringing this vision to life.”
Starbucks and Lyft have struck a multi-year deal where all Lyft drivers can become My Starbucks Rewards loyalty program gold level members, with both drivers and riders able to earn MSR loyalty Stars. Lyft drivers can also receive Starbucks eGifts cards from customers via the Lyft app for a more personal thank-you.
“This is a great win-win,” said Adam Brotman, chief digital officer, Starbucks, in a press release. “Our digital loyalty ecosystem can help strengthen Lyft’s ability to attract and retain customers, while at the same time accelerating the incrementality of redemption of rewards.”
Sometimes it’s the simple ideas that are the most effective and I love this one from Starbucks. The coffee giant has teamed up with Twitter to launch the Tweet-A-Coffee campaign. This allows people to send a $5 Starbucks gift card to anyone in the US via Twitter.
It’s a really simple idea, users just need to link their Starbucks and Twitter account and mention @tweetacoffee to send the gift card to a friend, family, follower, or anyone for that matter. They can even include a message to let them know that their next Starbucks is on them. Unfortunately for those of us that are outside the US, Tweet-A-Coffee is only available in the states right now.
Employee engagement
Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz decided to do something about the recent stock market turmoil. He proceeded to address some major concerns—not directly to customers, but rather, to his employees.
All 190,000 of them.
In an interesting memo Schultz spoke directly to employees and encouraged them to show special concern for consumers:
Our customers are likely to experience an increased level of anxiety and concern. Please recognize this and–as you always have–remember that our success is not an entitlement, but something we need to earn, every day. Let’s be very sensitive to the pressures our customers may be feeling, and do everything we can to individually and collectively exceed their expectations.
Credit Schultz with his efforts to use this situation to improve customer service. If I’ve learned anything through the years, it’s that you have to stand up for what you believe in, despite the naysayers. Schultz seems to have a similar view. He’s not without his critics, but his memo shows his refusal to stand by idle.
Customer engagement is not a trivial item for Starbucks, is it?
Customer generated content
When Starbucks takes a photo, it shares it on Instagram, posts it to Facebook, tweets it on Twitter, and pins it on Pinterest. It clearly goes to where all its customers like to hang out. Cross-promotion is more valuable as the world becomes more digitally focused.
Each network provides an opportunity to reach a new audience, and integrating your strategy on each is crucial to increasing visibility and promoting the brand.
Another great example of user-generated content, Starbucks’ White Cup Contest launched in April 2014. Customers across the country were asked to doodle on their Starbucks cups and submit pictures as entries. The winning entry would be the template for a new limited edition Starbucks cup.
Nearly 4,000 customers submitted entries in a three-week span. The contest was a great way for Starbucks to earn publicity and prove that it strongly valued customer feedback.
Geofencing
Starbucks has utilized geofencing, which is where you can set a virtual boundary around a specific location, like a store. Once they cross that set geofence, people with the Starbucks app receive a location-based notification highlighting a coupon or offer and reminding them there’s a Starbucks nearby. This kind of personalization inspires more engagement and brand loyalty and provides the ability for any business to make national campaigns hyperlocal.
Experience customization
Starbucks provides its unique experience through programs such as My Starbucks Rewards, personalized “signature” drinks, and localized store experiences. Their social sites, in particular, Pinterest and Instagram, encourage users to share their Starbucks moments’ whether it be the return of a favorite holiday drink or just an artsy coffee cup shot.
Sticking to core USP
Starbucks is another successful business that makes for a great case study on unique selling propositions. They went from a small coffee shop in Washington to one of the most recognized brands in America, and they transformed this country from a nation of Folgers drinkers to a nation of coffee connoisseurs.
To become familiar Starbucks’ unique selling proposition, you can ask this question: “What does Starbucks stand for, and what is it that they’re known for?” The answer is simple: They stand for premium coffee beverages, and they’re known for the same.
Don’t be fooled!Although Starbucks does offer items other than coffee drinks,what they are uniquely known for are high-quality coffee beverages.
The bottom line
Starbucks is one of many businesses we can learn from. Those that do things to fit the system never create change and a lack of change leads to stagnation – personally and corporately.
How often do you hear “We don’t do things that way here” in meetings? Breaking those corporate habits is critical to maintaining momentum in the business.
Howard Schulz’s book ‘Onward’ tells the journey of the salvation of Starbucks and is one of the best books I’ve read about connecting culture change to business results.
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business?
How could you improve the Starbucks Coffee Social Media campaign concept for your business?
Do you like to read the best social media educational blogs? There are quite a few great ones out there. The very best out there, BY FAR, is the one Neil Patel puts out. You’ll find lots of great tips, examples, and actual results from his businesses in his blog. His material in Quick Sprout is also excellent.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on social media platforms from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
About Social Media … Ways to Use Social Media for Learning
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
The secret to problem-solving, creativity, and idea generation is curiosity. You generate lots of ideas to find the best of the best. Using convergent thinking idea generation techniques you start by asking lots of questions. By being curious. By thinking widely and not discarding ideas too soon. By convergent thinking.
Idea generation.
It’s not that they can’t find the solution. They can’t find the problem.
We often forget to encourage our employees to be curious. An employee who has no perceived customer skills, or ability to communicate well or the inability to be a good team player gets immediate and escalating attention.
The employee with no curiosity, on the other hand, is no problem at all. Lumps are easily managed.
The same thing is true for following instructions. We usually like employees who don’t ask a lot of questions, and not question the status quo.
Yet, without the question “why?” there can be no here’s how to make it better.
Idea generation techniques.
So we want to share a story to illustrate the value of why you need to ask why.
We are always on the lookout for good stories. Stories to illustrate points we are emphasizing. So we read a lot. Today’s story is about generating ideas. Ideas from convergent thinking.
The story is about why you should ask why. It comes from Ideas Champions. A consulting company like us (but bigger and more well-known), who specialize in creativity, innovation, team building, and leadership. All favorite topics of ours. So we keep up with this team.
The story is about a big problem with one of our favorite monuments – the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC.
Simply put, birds — in huge numbers — were pooping all over it, which made visiting the place a very unpleasant experience.
Attempts to remedy the situation caused even bigger problems since the harsh cleaning detergents being used were damaging the memorial.
Fortunately, some of the National Parks managers assigned to the case began asking WHY — as in “Why was the Jefferson Memorial so much more of a target for birds than any of the other memorials?”
A little bit of investigation revealed the following:
The birds were attracted to the Jefferson Memorial because of the abundance of spiders — a gourmet treat for birds.
The spiders were attracted to the Memorial because of the abundance of midges (insects) that were nesting there.
And the midges were attracted to the Memorial because of the light.
Midges, it turns out, like to procreate in places where the light is just so — and because the lights were turned on, at the Jefferson Memorial, one hour before dark, it created the kind of mood lighting that midges went crazy for.
So there you have it: The midges were attracted to the light. The spiders were attracted to the midges. The birds were attracted to the spiders. And the National Parks workers, though not necessarily attracted to the bird poop, were attracted to getting paid — so they spent a lot of their time (and taxpayer money) cleaning the Memorial.
How did the situation resolve? Very simply.
After reviewing the curious chain of events that led up to the problem, the decision was made to wait until dark before turning the lights on at the Jefferson Memorial. About as simple a solution as you could get. Right?
That one-hour delay was enough to ruin the mood lighting for the midges, who then decided to have midge sex somewhere else.
No midges, no spiders. No spiders, no birds. No birds, no poop. No poop, no need to clean the Jefferson Memorial so often. Case closed.
Now, consider what “solutions” might have been forthcoming if those curious National Parks managers did not stop and ask WHY:
Hire more workers to clean the Memorial
Ask existing workers to work overtime
Experiment with different kinds of cleaning materials
Put bird poison all around the memorial
Hire hunters to shoot the birds
Encase the entire Jefferson Memorial in Plexiglas
Move the Memorial to another part of Washington
Close the site to the general public
Technically speaking, each of the above “solutions” was a possible approach — but at great cost, inconvenience, and with questionable results. Not great solutions.
Idea generation techniques … key takeaways
Now, think about YOUR business… YOUR life.
What problems are you facing that could be approached differently simply by asking WHY…. and then WHY again… and then WHY again … until you get to the real definition of the problem?
If you don’t, you may just end up not correctly defining the problem. Not good. Nothing worse than solving the wrong problem. So put in enough time in understanding and defining your problem. Don’t leap to problem-solving before you do. Lots of whys help us explore and thoroughly define the problem.
If you are looking for additional resources for innovation, one of my favorite experts is Tim Kastelle. You’ll find lots of good stories and examples tolearn from his blog.
Remember to practice these problem-solving skills as well as asking lots of why questions to form new ideas.
Do you have problem-solving, creative learning experiences that are good at generating ideas? A story you would like to share?
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff ’s teamwork, collaboration, and learning? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a teamwork or continuous learning workshop?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer service from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Stunning Customer Service Lessons and Their Examples
10 Guarantees of Poor Customer Service
How to Build Trust to Keep Customers Returning
Best Buy Lessons in Customer Service
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Don’t believe you are creative? Creativity is often defined as the ability to connect ideas that are seemingly unconnectable. Connecting ideas are how new ideas originate … it is the basis to think creatively.
Contrary to what most people believe, creativity is not limited to the gifted ones of the population. It can be taught, nurtured, and enhanced.
Are you one that believes that creativity can be learned? We are among that group. We also believe in suggestions for creative design thinking can boost team creativity through effective collaboration. Through a series of sparks and not a single flash of insight. Certainly our way of thinking.
There are many, many ways to enhance creativity. We use 3 checklists with clients (and ourselves) to help enhance creativity.
Use of checklists? Ever given them a try? Lots of ways to use them. After college, I spent almost 2 years of training as a naval aviator. An important element of that training was the use of checklists in the learning and refresher process.
Checklist utilization remains an important part of my business life. It is always a good idea to have a helpful checklist for many topics, creativity included. Simple refresh reminders of improvements.
Let’s get started looking at this one which includes some not so usual ideas:
What is a creative collective?
Carry notebook
Don’t depend on your memory when good ideas arrive. Carry a notebook and pen everywhere. Write down your ideas and thoughts as soon as you can. The sooner the better.
Don’t force it
Loosen up and let ideas come to you. Observe. Listen. Connect ideas and observations. Don’t be too specific with your objects. Let your thoughts flow. But don’t throw out any. And always keep the old ones around.
Follow the rules
Let just say not all rules are good ones. There are some stupid ones out there. Pick your spots and explore. Kill the bad rules.
Consider an example ofInternet Privacy
Running a business today almost certainly means having a digital presence, and being connected to the Internet. While the benefits of this transformation are many, the security issues are still a daily challenge, with many solutions in the marketplace to address them.
Yes, internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are free to track all your browsing behavior and sell it to advertisers without consent.
ISPs have access to literally all of your browsing behavior – they act as a gateway for all of your web visits, clicks, searches, app downloads, and video streams.
This represents a huge treasure trove of personal data, including health concerns, shopping habits, and porn preferences. ISPs want to use this data to deliver personalized advertising.
Looking for a valid VPN solution?
Don’t practice
Creativity is like any other learned skill. Unless you are the rare minority, you weren’t born with amazing creative skills.
You will need lots of practice and experience. And lots of failures and not so good results. Be patient and stick with it. All good skills take time.
Don’t collaborate
Collaboration drives creativity because new ideas always emerge from a series of sparks. Never a single flash of insight.
Surround yourself with creative people in different fields. Find people that are also looking for collaboration and give it a try.
Think creative … encourage feedback
Ask for feedback … get and collect the best ideas. Keep an open mind and don’t be defensive. Pick what you want for follow up.
Listen to new music
Diversity in all things. Even your music. Like everything, you are into. Try as many new things as possible. Including new people.
Don’t worry about finishing what you start
Remember you are trying new things. And not expecting great results. Many failures. If you don’t finish, it doesn’t count as experience or a failure. Just a give up.
Look to stretch yourself.
Don’t stretch yourself
Build on your imagination and your curiosity. They are your most important creativity assets. Work hard at avoiding the old ways you do things. Getting the old ways out of your head is one of your most difficult tasks.
This list is simple, but makes good sense, doesn’t it?
But here is the thing:
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 a key, isn’t it? Perhaps this is the most important reason we have less creative people.
The bottom line
Creative people ship remarkable work because they seek to complete something, to heal something, to change something for the better. To move from where they are now to a more centered, more complete place.
You don’t get creative once everything is okay. In fact, we are creative because everything isn’t okay (yet).
Look for ways to optimize.
Remember to practice these creativity skills as well as creative convergence, the ability to discover new relationships between different ideas to form new ideas.
Do you have creative learning experiences that you would like to share?
More reading on creativity from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Within five years, if you’re in the same business you are in now, you’re going to be out of business. Dire theory from Peter Drucker. The My Starbucks Idea website, where Starbucks does its business crowdsourcing, has been actively engaging customers for over 3 years now.
Ever tried My Starbucks Idea?
It encourages customers to submit ideas for better products, improving the customer experience, and defining new community involvement, among other categories. Clearly, Starbucks has seen and believes what Peter Drucker has to say about business adaptability.
Customers can submit, view, and discuss submitted ideas along with employees from various Starbucks departments ‘Idea Partners’. The company regularly polls its customers for their favorite products and has a leaderboard to track which customers are the most active in submitting ideas, comments, and poll participation.
The site is at once a crowdsourcing tool, a market research method that brings customer priorities to light, an online community, and an effective internet marketing tool.
Starbucks has clearly embraced the digital realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in social media.
Starbucks’ ability to wear so many hats corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants strategic examination.
My Starbucks Idea … why is Starbuck’s business crowdsourcing so effective?
One important reason is that they have combined the concepts of change, experimentation, social media, customer engagement and market research and made the results key components of their dominant brand.
We all fear failure. At best, this makes us hesitate. At worst, it leads to total stagnation. One of the most common reasons for resistance is fear of the unknown. People will only take active steps toward the unknown if they genuinely believe – and perhaps more importantly, feel – that the risks of standing still are greater than those of moving forward in a new direction.
When we talk about comfort zones we’re really referring to routines. We love them. They make us secure.
Have you given My Starbucks Idea a try? What did you think?
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business? How could you improve the My Starbucks Idea concept for your business?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your business innovation process and efforts. Lessons are all around you. In some cases, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. Or collaborating with you. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Charles Darwin said: It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change. From Dan Pink’s Blog, we found the following facts on innovation that we would like to share with you:
A study of the top 50 game-changing innovations over a 100 year period showed that nearly 80% of those changes were sparked by someone whose primary expertise was outside the field in which the innovation breakthrough took place.
Wow! 80% created by someone outside the field where innovation occurred!
What other innovation facts and conclusions can we derive from this?
Innovation, while often depending on the new invention, is more about application than invention.
Already been accomplished?
Often the application of something similar has already been performed in the other field, usually in a different way.
When working innovation, it helps to draw on various skills; experience sets …diverse crowds.
We need to be constantly open to new ideas, particularly in different fields of endeavor.
Probably the most persistent — and damaging — myth about innovation is that it’s about ideas. It’s not. Tremendous amounts of time and energy are wasted thinking up radically new ideas that never end up going anywhere. Middle managers never seem to tire of complaining that their ideas are ignored by the powers above.
The truth is that nobody cares about your ideas. They care about what problems you can solve for them. So if you want to innovate effectively, don’t go looking for a great idea so that you can dazzle others with your brilliance, look for a meaningful problem and get to work on solving it.
The secret to innovation and creativity is curiosity. You generate lots of ideas to find the best of the best. By creating ideas, you start by asking lots of questions. By being curious. By thinking widely and not discarding ideas too soon. By convergent thinking. All of which help us to understand better and define the problem we are attempting to solve.
Without the question “why?” there can be no here’s how to make it better. Or no game-changing innovations.
So we want to share a story to illustrate the value of why you need to ask why.
We are always on the lookout for good stories. Stories to show points we are emphasizing. So we read a lot. Today’s story is about generating ideas. Ideas from convergent thinking.
The story is about why you should ask why. It comes from Ideas Champions. A consulting company like us (but bigger and more well-known), who specialize in creativity, innovation, team building, and leadership. All favorite topics of ours. So we keep up with this team.
The story is a big problem with one of our favorite monuments … the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC.
Simply put, birds in huge numbers were pooping all over it, which made visiting the place a very unpleasant experience.
Attempts to remedy the situation caused even bigger problems since the harsh cleaning detergents being used were damaging the memorial.
Fortunately, some of the National Parks managers assigned to the case began asking WHY as in Why was the Jefferson Memorial so much more of a target for birds than any of the other memorials?
A little bit of investigation revealed the following:
The birds were attracted to the Jefferson Memorial because of the abundance of spiders, a gourmet treat for birds.
The spiders were attracted to the Memorial because of the abundance of midges (insects) that were nesting there.
And the midges were attracted to the Memorial because of the light.
Midges, it turns out like to procreate in places where the light is just so and because the lights were turned on, at the Jefferson Memorial, one hour before dark, it created the kind of mood lighting that midges went crazy for.
So there you have it: The midges were attracted to the light. The spiders were attracted to the midges. The birds were attracted to the spiders. And the National Parks workers, though not necessarily drawn to the bird poop, were attracted to getting paid, so they spent a lot of their time (and taxpayer money) cleaning the Memorial.
How did the situation resolve? Very simply.
After reviewing the curious chain of events that led up to the problem, the decision was made to wait until dark before turning the lights on at the Jefferson Memorial. About as simple a solution as you could get. Right?
That one-hour delay was enough to ruin the mood lighting for the midges, who then decided to have midge sex somewhere else.
No midges, no spiders. No spiders, no birds. No birds, no poop. No poop, no need to clean the Jefferson Memorial so often. Case closed.
Now, consider what solutions might have been forthcoming if those curious National Parks managers did not stop and ask WHY:
Hire more workers to clean the Memorial
Ask existing employees to work overtime
Experiment with different kinds of cleaning materials
Put bird poison all around the memorial
Hire hunters to shoot the birds
Encase the entire Jefferson Memorial in Plexiglas
Move the Memorial to another part of Washington
Close the site to the general public
Technically speaking, each of the above solutions was a possible approach, but at great cost, inconvenience, and with questionable results. Not great solutions.
Key takeaways
What problems are you facing that could be approached differently simply by asking WHY. And then WHY again, and then WHY again … until you get to the real definition of the problem?
If you don’t, you may just end up not correctly defining the problem. Not good. Nothing worse than solving the wrong problem. So put in enough time in understanding and describing your problem. Don’t leap to problem-solving before you do. Lots of whys help us explore and thoroughly identify the problem.
What conclusions does your business derive from these facts on innovation?
Remember … all new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.
Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
More to think about: Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
We are always surprised by the number of our clients that don’t make a distinction between these concepts. Can you make the distinction?
On average, it takes about 30 years to go from initial discovery to significant market impact and we are about a decade into the next great transformation. That puts us almost exactly where those Xerox executives were in 1977. They had no idea of what personal computers would unleash and if we’re honest, we need to admit that we are in the same boat.
What we can do is recognize that there is a great transformation underway that will unlock possibilities and opportunities that are impossible to see clearly right now. However, it is more critical to explore than to predict and that’s what we need to do today. We don’t need to understand the future to be open to it.
A clear distinction and your appropriate action focus will definitely make a difference to your business. Let’s explore why.
Creativity is your ability to imagine new concepts. It does not require value creation. That is why when we run brainstorming sessions; we do not allow concepts to be screened for merit. We are being divergent and looking for all possible ideas. Creativity plays an important role in both invention and innovation but is only the front end component of each.
Invention and innovation. They have been so thoroughly misused that it is hard to tell the difference between them. Yet they could not be more different.
Innovation is the process through which value is created and delivered to a community in the form of a new solution. We have purposely chosen to frame the definition as a process. It can also be used to describe a new product or service … the output of the process. In either case, the key elements of the meaning are valued delivery and newness.
The invention is very distinct from innovation. When a new idea surfaces or a new patent is filed—that is an invention. It is the classic eureka moment when a person has an idea for the better mousetrap and sets about creating it, putting off concern about who will buy it for another day.
When you consider the three attributes that an invention must possess to be patentable – novelty, non-obviousness, utility – you can see its distinction from an innovation. One is that innovations can be obvious. The other is in the concept of utility. Inventions need only be useful to the inventor and have recognizable utility to the patent attorney. Innovations must answer to a much wider audience. They must be adopted in practice by the intended user community to be considered a true innovation.
The invention is often viewed as a source of economic growth. As a result, the invention has been linked in the public mind to succeed in the marketplace. It isn’t. It’s innovation that generates new products, new services, new businesses, and new jobs. Businesses need to be focused on innovation much more than invention.
The marketplace.
Profitable business ideas … the marketplace
The invention is accurately perceived as a cornerstone of innovation. It generates new ideas, patents, prototypes, designs, as well as breakthrough experiments and working prototypes.
However, it’s innovation that transforms these inventions into commercial products, services, and businesses. Ultimately an invention is only valued by the marketplace when customers use it or buy it.
For example, the technology behind flat-screen TVs was invented decades ago. The breakthrough innovation was the application of that technology to the public’s insatiable appetite for big-screen HDTV. That was the innovation.
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Business idea example … to meet a need
Innovation is a very different process than invention. When a need is identified and a product or service is developed to meet that need, you have innovation. People talk about the “invention” of the light bulb or the “invention” of the iPhone, when in fact neither Thomas Edison nor Steve Jobs was an inventor.
They both used existing technology in new ways with an eye toward a big market for the result. They were innovators.
When launching the first enterprise or growing an existing one, it is important for businesses to understand that an invention, no matter how inspired, will not be worth much if nobody wants to buy it.
For businesses looking for new growth centers, it is important to understand that brainstorming new product ideas is worth far less than identifying consumer wants and needs and developing products or services to meet them.
Our message for businesses is simple. Think more like an innovator. Learn the innovation process. Spend time at the front end on what the marketplace needs, rather than trying to build a slick marketing campaign selling your invention. That is the best way to success.
Innovation isn’t about talking, it’s about doing. The action. So get moving and begin your journey from accidental innovator to a high-performance innovation business leader.
The bottom line
Like anything else, fostering creative business ideas require practice. And distinguishing between creativity, invention, and innovation. So exercise and practice this skill and utilize it in as many areas of your business as you can.
Innovation is extremely essential to any organization, especially in today’s hyper-competitive business market. The successful exploitation of new ideas is critical to a business’s ability to improve its processes, bring new and improved products and services to the market, increase its overall efficiency and productivity, and, most importantly, improve its profitability.
What’s important to consider is that when a task is automated, it is also democratized and value shifts to another place. So, for example, e-commerce devalues the processing of transactions but increases the value of things like customer service, expertise, and resolving problems with orders, which is why we see all those smiling faces when we walk into an Apple Store.
That’s what we often forget about innovation. It’s essentially a very human endeavor and, to measure true progress, humans always need to be at the center.
Have an innovation experience to share with this community?
Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
