Innovation starts where the comfort zone ends. Just about everyone agrees innovations such as ChatGPT, smartphones, personal computers and M-Pesa are game changers.
But how can you become more innovative? Let go of your ego in business, always believing you are right; be aware, and think about how you think.
Innovation ensures a firm’s profitability and fuels national economic growth. For non-governmental organisations and donors, it drives impact effectiveness. The word originates from the Latin verb, “innovate” which means “to renew”.
Today, the terms ‘disruption’ and ‘innovation’ are used loosely to try and support whatever is on offer. The words ‘disruptive innovation’ are often applied in any situation, in a sector where there has been a shakeup, and the once successful market leaders stumbled.
Based on the work of innovation guru, Clayton Christensen, there are three types of innovations.
Efficiency innovations aim to do ‘more with less’, cutting costs wherever possible, and usually cut jobs. On the finance dimension, they are stars, creating free cash flow.
Sustaining innovations are the ‘normal improvements’, say making a good product better. These types don’t create much growth, and typically no additional jobs are created.
Disruptive innovations often begin in markets large corporate players ignore. In the beginning, they tend to be simple and affordable, usually focusing on a tiny market, with often unattractive profit margins, offering a product that has room for quality improvement.
These game-changing innovations rarely come from corporates; they emerge from misfit start-ups that big business ignores.
Shifting from the corporate perspective, one notices significant innovations begin with the individual. So, how does one become a touch more imaginative and innovative?
Give up being right: Our brains are programmed to believe we are always correct. This survival mechanism is helpful when you sit in a chair in a conference room; it’s a safe bet to assume that it won’t collapse. But in your heart of hearts, one knows a manager misses a lot.
“You can never get enough of what you don’t want” is how Jimmy Hoffa, the former boss of the US Teamsters Union, expressed it.
We often miss what is in front of us, and don’t see the obvious. Imagine yourself 12 feet away just looking at you. Now, see yourself with an open mind, ready to consider other points of view.
To see the business problem, you face differently. This is tough to do since it involves egos, our self-image. Yet, if a breakthrough is going to occur, it requires a ‘think different’ mindset.
The good news is that breakthroughs always begin with breakdowns, so if things are not going well, you may be in the perfect space.
Remember Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity, “Doing the same things again and again, and expecting a different result.”
Think about thinking: Sit quietly, close your eyes, gently breathe in, breathe out, focus only on your breath. What do you notice?
Chances are you have difficulty focusing on your breath for more than 10 seconds before a traffic jam of thoughts rudely barges in.
Human brains are like a monkey in a fruit tree, not staying still for a moment, swinging from branch to branch, seeking to quickly pluck the juicy rewards. Again, a survival mechanism.
Apple innovator Steve Jobs said, "To go upwards, one has to go inwards". Learn mindfulness to quieten your mind. Mindfulness means ‘mind-lessness’. Just being still.
We don’t often make the distinction about thinking since our brains work at various frequencies.
Beta waves are our normal ‘outer consciousness’ working state, but it is alpha and delta waves that we normally access in sleep, and in dreams, that make us creative.
In dreaming, our subconscious mind comes into play. Think of the subconscious as the central processing unit of the computer that has the memory and the operating system while the conscious mind is more like a keyboard, or a screen.
Thinking about a business problem before falling asleep, chances are as you wake up in the morning, you will have a possible solution, that’s your subconscious at work.
