HOW TO NOT BE MONOTONOUS BUT BE INNOVATIVE
Fun fact: word innovation was also someone’s invention. If you define the word innovate it's actually pretty simple i.e. to find something new/ to introduce something new. Now let's define new, have you seen a fresh clothing line by a company or designer now that’s something new, the design is new, the trend it starts is new and the fabric it uses is new. In conclusion, anything that’s fresh, creative, and different also unique is new!
The best feature of the word ‘innovate’ is that it allows you to do something new, something different, something innovative. Someone said, “ for someone to innovate one must be knowing the field inside out or at least have a degree in the same” which I believe is the myth that stops people from thinking wider and vaster. Some said “ I am too lazy to find something new” but I believe laziness is actually an essential element in the need to innovate, why do you think cars were made? wasn’t it made for ease of transportation, why was remote for your Television made isn’t it made so that you could laze around your couch and still be able to change channels, volume levels, etc. This myth just tends to your will to not try out, explore and risk it for once.
HOW DO YOU EXACTLY INNOVATE?
It’s one of the toughest challenges an executive faces: How do you get your people to think creatively — to challenge the status quo — while still running your everyday operations smoothly? Innovation is not like most other business functions and activities. There are no reliable templates, rules, processes, or even measures of success. In a sense, each act of innovation is a unique feat, a leap of the individual — or the collective — imagination that can be neither predicted nor replicated. Innovation, in short, is anything but business as usual.
And yet certain organizations are somehow able to come up with great ideas over and over again. Some of the ideas are for new products, some for new ways of working, others for new strategies, and others for entirely new lines of business. Is there a secret to these companies’ successes? Can other organizations learn from their examples? How do you boost an organization’s creative potential?
To be unique you need to do something unique. To come up with the same in business we can :
Ask customers
Observe customers
Use difficulties and complaints
Ask your staff
Examine patents
Collaborate
Go back in time
Run a contest
Adapt a product to a new use
Watch the competition
Use social networks
Ask — what if?
Innovation is about taking risks and learning from failure. You need to encourage innovation when your company’s doing well. The last thing you want to do when you’re in the lead becomes complacent. The most important step to encourage innovation is hiring people who have experience outside of the same field. Another set of eyes to look at the whole thing is always useful.
I think it’s essential to build a culture where there’s no such thing as a bad idea.
