Innovation is thinking differently and creating new pathways
The rollercoaster that is business at the moment, for so many business owners and business leaders, has created times of uncertainty. “Are we headed in the right direction, are we working with the right clients, are we showing our team they matter, do we want to grow or how do we handle the growth that we have created… all these elements are coming up and often leaving quality business leaders second guessing themselves and feeling frustrated. Has this been you over the past 3 months ?
“Feelings are feelings…. not facts” was something that came up last week that stuck with us. When you feel frustrated, you feel overwhelmed, you feel like you aren’t making any progress… is that an actual fact or are you just associating a feeling to your space ? To shift this, say Stop It ! Stop what you are doing, look at the FACTS and think how can innovation shift or reshape your space to get a different outcome. Shifting a meeting to a day where all team members were in the office, rather than have some consistently absent, was an example that came up this week which could be a game changer.
So how do you create an environment that encourages everyone to Stop doing the routine and think outside the square…
Here’s a couple of ways that have worked for us recently:
- Say Stop It ! – encouraging teams to be aware of how they are operating and the part they play in creating even better results. This does require leaders to be vulnerable and admit they don’t always have all the answers… yet can have even more opportunities to break unproductive patterns and create a fresh look at how to do differently to create even better results while ensuring the customer experience remains top shelf;
- What are the Facts – make time to get clear on the facts of situations not just how it makes you feel. A client is late for a meeting and you get frustrated as i value timeliness… you let them know how unhappy you are. Yet it’s taken them 20mins to find a park and the freeway is like a parking lot (something they didn’t cause). Without the facts all you get is frustration… Ask the question “What are the facts here” and then make decisions based on these… as decisions based on feelings can lead you in a direction based on emotion;
- Is there a better way – we all have the ability to ask this question, it’s whether we are given the opportunity to explore the options that makes the difference. For some leaders, this “not having all the answers” will be challenging and probably shows up in their results. Embrace what others are seeing and experiencing and listen… as even the smallest idea can create a massive impact. Have you ever noticed that Redhead matches only having one striking pad on their matchboxes now… this simple idea saved them a fortune and is innovation at it’s best. Create the opportunity for the entire team to innovate.
So where you have things that aren’t delivering what you want or you feel there could be another way to do it to get a different result… use the Stop It way ! Get attuned to the facts and get your team involved as i’m sure there are a bunch of efficiencies they have that could smooth out some existing processes.
Want someone outside your space to help you with this… let’s chat as this out of the box thinking is our jam.
Feel free to forward this on to your networks as well… we’d love to see this get to as many people as possible as if we can help just one extra person create a new result for them that’s our job done.
Cheers and have an awesome week!
