| Without innovative ideas, a company stagnates | | | | markets, technology, economies, and consumers' |
| and may even cease to exist. In other words, | | | | taste is continuous, complex, chaotic, and |
| innovate or die. | | | | accelerating. This rapid change has created a new |
| But innovation isn't just about turning on your right | | | | set of challenges - very quickly. |
| brain, brainstorming, and generating a few "aha" | | | | Innovation demands creativity, the ability to |
| moments. It's more than just dreaming up new | | | | develop new ideas. But despite the entire |
| ideas. Innovation is the "act of introducing | | | | emphasis about being more creative, every new |
| something new" - with an emphasis on something | | | | idea isn't innovative. And many life-altering ideas |
| new. | | | | never see the light of day. Why? |
| Harvard Business School professor Clayton | | | | Because the only way creative ideas become |
| Christensen has a little vignette in his book The | | | | reality is by taking risks. "The willingness to take |
| Innovator's Dilemma about how people were | | | | risks is not always easy," according to Jacqueline |
| trying to fly in the Middle Ages by fabricating | | | | Byrd, the brain behind Creatrix," especially when |
| wings, strapping them onto their arms, jumping | | | | forced to push an idea against opposition and |
| and flapping real hard. For centuries subsequent | | | | adversity. Innovation requires a willingness to |
| innovators framed the problem as: The guys who | | | | accept criticism, to withstand frustration, and to |
| died just didn't flap hard enough. Yet it still never | | | | make mistakes. In other words, innovation means |
| worked. Once they understood that there were | | | | that a person or organization is willing to push his |
| some basic laws of nature that they needed to | | | | or her ideas forward at some potential risk to his |
| account for, once Bernoulli understood fluid | | | | or her own security, career, reputation, or |
| mechanics well enough to articulate his principle, | | | | self-esteem. |
| then there was a law of nature we could actually | | | | Byrd, the author of The Innovation Equation, |
| harness. | | | | suggested in a recent Blog Talk Radio interview, |
| A lot of good managers during these challenging | | | | that every organization should be asking, "Do we |
| times are flapping their wings. They are working | | | | have the stomach and capacity to innovate?" |
| very hard to fight some fundamental changes in | | | | Strategically, that's a fundamental and essential |
| the way we will do business when they should be | | | | question for every organization and individual. In |
| harnessing the changes and identifying the | | | | future posts, I'll be writing more about how you |
| opportunities. | | | | and/or your organization can assess this |
| What's standing in their way? Until this century, | | | | innovative capacity, how to determine how much |
| businesses executed change at a controlled pace. | | | | is enough, how to identify the 7 drivers of |
| Market strategies were developed years in | | | | creativity and risk-taking, and 9 personality traits |
| advance and product roadmaps extended years | | | | that shape innovation. |
| into the future. Today, unprecedented changes in | | | | |