Take a Chance

Think about all the commercial offerings you see, and consider how many you actually pay any attention to.  I’ll bet it is usually the ones that are out of the ordinary, or which do something unexpected.  There is a psychological reason for this.  When we see or do something, we get used to it and create patterns in our mind to deal with the situation.  It normally saves us time and energy, otherwise we’d have to decide every morning which sock to put on which foot, which item of clothing is right for what you are doing etc.  Once you generalise, you know ‘Hey, I’m going to work so I need a suit, shirt and black socks’.  In other words, you’ve created a useful habit.

But this function of the brain spills over into other areas, such as watching television and reading magazines.  Here, you see a crazy ad the first time and think, ‘that’s cool!’  The next time, though, you’ve seen it and your mind has connected advertisement to the funny image, and even worse it generalises to all similar images.  ‘Been there, done that’ becomes the adage.

So how do you stand out?  Keep being different!  That’s the only way.  You have to keep taking a chance and be less ordinary.  Big companies aren’t good at this because they get set in their ways, which is why entrepreneurs can take the lead.  And if you don’t want to keep changing?  Sorry, but our mind developed over a few million years, so it’s either you change your approach or wait a few million more to see if our brains catch up.

The Wisest Person Makes the Best Cup of Tea

Consider the humble cup of tea.  What makes it taste great, and what can go wrong?  If you don’t take sugar and you’re served a cup with three lumps in, you’ll leave it on the table (if you don’t spit it all over the sofa).  How about if you notice the cup is dirty as you’re taking your first drink?  There are a number of reasons the wisest person makes the best cup of tea:

·       Consideration for others – the wisest people consider what other people need, and then deliver it.  When making a cup of tea you don’t give milk and sugar to someone who does without.

·       Attention to detail – making sure everything is clean and tidy for your cup of tea.  The wisest people take this to another level, not just considering the must have details, but considering how they can provide extra.  No dirty cups here, but also a consideration of what type of cup would be best for the tea.

·       See the bigger picture – are you making one pot, or tea for a whole group?  You need to know where you fit in and how this affects what you’re doing.  The wisest people see the picture beyond themselves and look out further.

·       Genuine enjoyment – needless to say, if you hate making tea you probably won’t care about the other things!  The wisest people choose to do what they love which makes them even better.

What does this have to do with innovation?  Everything!  If you are not looking at what people need and anticipating this, you’ll make innovations that fall flat, and may make an impact only once and awhile.  Equally, if you don’t enjoy the area you work in, there will be less motivation to innovate, because you’ll just want to do your job and get home.  So innovation is all about being wise, and applying examples from all walks of life and, yes, even enjoying a cup of tea.

Client = Audience Suppliers = Supporters

A change in view may be a change in your business fortunes.  Where you start to see your client as your audience (and treating what you do like a television programme or stage play) you may start to recognise new, innovative ways of doing things.  I think changing your viewpoint is a great way of looking differently at what you do, because it makes you focus on what your client wants, and you become sensitive to your ‘viewing numbers’ instead of internal issues.

Consider the following take on how you would treat an audience:

·       Do you products have a show business appeal to them?  They should be attractive and catch consumer attention.

·       Do you track what clients want, like looking at audience share?  Why aren’t they tuning in?  Could you give them something else?

·       Do your brochures act like play bills or movie posters?  Why can’t they have a bit of show-business to them?

The classic company taking this approach is Disney, who calls the people who work for them cast members, for example.  How could you reframe what you are doing to give it a positive spin that would rub off on clients and everyone your company comes into contact with?

There is also a good psychological basis for why this works, called reframing, which can be used in a number of business and non-business situations.  Give it a try and let me know how it works.

Innovation with a 3-4-5

Recently, I’ve come across an idea that explains why many of the creative ideas that come up are not implemented to become profitable innovation.  It is the idea that you need to delegate 1 to 6, but that usually innovation is delegated without 3, 4, or 5.  Let me explain.

There are six groups of people who need to be convinced of a good idea, and have buy in when trying to implement change:

1.      Your boss

2.      You

3.      Your bosses peers

4.      Your peers

5.      Your employee’s peers

6.      Your employee

Most often when a change is introduced, your boss either tells you he wants it implemented, or you bring the idea to him and agree to take it forward.  You’ve usually got numbers 1 and 2 above covered.  Because of the chain of command you can also tell your employee to do it as well due to the authority you have.  Number 6 is covered.

But to truly get an idea to move forward, it is numbers 3, 4, and 5 which give real strength to a change implementation programme.  This is because these people are often either actively against your idea or at best do not support something that is not seen to be within their remit.  It’s not to say you need every single person’s buy in, but the more you have the more likely the implementation will happen.

Think about it this way.  A new idea is to be implemented which you’re responsible for.  Your boss keeps asking you about it, as does his boss and several of the other people at his grade.  Your direct report is enthusiastic because his peers think it is a great change and wish they had the job to do it.  And all your peers keep trying to muscle in on what you’re doing, or at least grab all the attention.  Do you think this idea has a better chance of getting implemented than one where the only people interested are you and your boss?

Entrepreneur as Creative Genius

Are all entrepreneurs creative?  A book I’ve been reading called The Edge:  Entrepreneurial Secrets from Britain's Richest Square Mile by Malcolm McClean has got me thinking about this.  Many of the stories and points to be learned from the book show that if you want to be an entrepreneur you almost always have to be creative.

·       Never, ever give up – in creativity you must keep generating ideas, no matter how many you have.  Once you have the idea, you need to keep going and implement the best ones.

·       A feeling they are different or separate – innovative people often threaten the status quo which makes others feel uncomfortable.  You have to ignore the doom mongers!

·       Looking for new ways to do things – this is the definition of what creativity is all about!

·       Taking risks – creativity doesn’t work unless you take chances with the ideas you are coming up with.  You have to be willing to look stupid to generate groundbreaking ideas.

·       Differentiate yourself – an area where creativity and new ideas is essential.

So just by the nature of what they do, entrepreneurs are often very creative, and need to be so to stay competitive.  There may be instances of someone who has had one good idea which they replicate over and over but, on the whole, creativity just has to be in their nature.

The People Power of Creativity

Most people tend to focus on ‘Product Power’ when considering creativity and innovation, which is natural considering the impact a breakthrough new offering can have on the market place.  But you shouldn’t overlook some of the hidden benefits creativity provides to people you work with:

·       Inspiration in finding new ideas

·       A feeling of contribution when you see your ideas put to use

·       Excitement at what you might be doing during the day

·       Belonging in the workplace

·       A change of atmosphere and a varied work schedule

·       Taking part in strategy and future planning

The above beat doing the same type of work, day in and day out.  Creativity, if treated correctly, can reinvigorate a work place that has stagnated.  It can even create a buzz where there wasn’t one before.  What ways are there for you to use creativity to improve the workplace? 

Creative Destruction

It’s official – creativity and innovation are crucial to a functioning economy and market.  I’ve been reading The Best Book on the Market which is a primer on how a market economy works, and what is needed to maximise their effectiveness.

One of the interesting ideas was about price points and competition.  The usual economist view is that the price usually settles around where the supply and demand curves meet.  But one of the reasons you can’t always charge the lowest price to win all the work is the other factors which drive demand.  Innovation and creativity are a key part of this because they not only generate ways to save costs, but they create new demand for what you are producing allowing you to ask for a premium price.

Taken one step further, innovation also creates demand where there was none previously.  This broadens the market and makes it more efficient by expanding people’s options.

So go ahead and innovate, you’re helping everyone make more money!

Customer Centred Creativity

Once upon a time there was a hawk with ferocious claws and piercing eyes.  No one knew he was kindly and actually liked to come up with ideas to help the other animals of the forest.  One day he was thinking about the squirrel gathering nuts all the time and invented a new breed of acorn that automatically beeped so a squirrel could easily find it when it fell to the ground.  It was a kind of ‘homing acorn’!  He thought the squirrels would love it.

He took his invention and put it in the clearing of the forest and waited on a tree top with a good view.  The acorn beeped away, and the squirrels were strangely attracted to it.  They would come into the clearing, clearly wanting the acorn, but then they would stop and run away.  Very frustrating.  The hawk couldn’t figure it out.

Over the next few weeks he made refinements as follows:

·       A more sonorous beep

·       Enhanced falling sensitivity

·       Squirrel pheromone release

·       New, improved brown colouring

·       Better taste and texture

Every day the hawk would watch carefully to see what changes would bring in the squirrels.  Nothing seemed to work, so finally the hawk just gave up and flew off.

The squirrels looked up and said, “Phew!   He’s finally gone, and I’m hungry.”

How to Measure Creativity

Measuring innovation and creativity can be tricky because it involves determining the value of ideas that have not yet been implemented, or even identified.  Traditional measures of profit or return on income don’t work for something that is in its infancy.  So how do you measure creativity?  I think the best way is to factor in all the core concepts that show creativity is alive in an organisation.

Number of ideas

One of the main issues is whether you are generating a large number of ideas.  You need to measure not only the number, but the period of time over which you are having them.

Types of ideas

You also need ideas that are a little crazy or difficult to implement.  Are all your ideas very similar to the current way of doing things?  If so, you need to push yourself for more different and varied input and output.

Ideas put into practice

Finally, you also need to measure the number of ideas actually being worked on, and the number of ideas implemented.

Based on the above there may be a number of measures you want to consider:

·       Number of ideas generated in the last month / quarter / year.

·       Number of brainstorming meetings to generate ideas.

·       Number of techniques used to generate ideas.

·       Number of ideas rejected (shows how fecund you have been).

·       Number of ideas implemented.

·       Number of ideas implemented which have changed the marketplace.

·       Number of awards for new market offerings / products.

·       Profit from ideas implemented.

·       Money saved from ideas generated.

·       Market perception of how creative you are compared to others (via surveys).

There are probably many more, but you want to focus on a core of standards which will indicate you are concentrating on creativity and innovation, and which will show employees you are serious about this area.