Innovation: Wake Up Your People?s Creative Genius

Successful companies have innovation in their blood. The single most important element in an innovative company is the creativity of their people. Creative thinkers don't win by conforming to a given set of rules. Rather they reinvent the game by asking the 20 challenging questions and following 20 breakthrough strategies.

20 Challenging Questions to Ask:

  • What if....?
  • What do you think about....?
  • What's the next step?
  • What can we do better?
  • How can we streamline?
  • What should we modify?
  • What should we replace?
  • What should we add?
  • What should we eliminate?
  • Can we make any new assumptions?
  • What will make it work?
  • What other ideas do you have?
  • What issues should we explore?
  • What patterns can you see?
  • How can we simplify?
  • How can we improve?
  • How will the customer benefit?
  • Have we forgotten anything?
  • What else?
  • Why?

    • 20 Break Through Strategies to Follow:

  • Innovate for today as well as tomorrow.
  • Focus on what you can reasonably do?and stretch a bit.
  • Make innovation part of the day-to-day operations.
  • Develop a company-wide innovation process.
  • Assign responsibility to one person or team for the innovative process.
  • Provide incentives if you want your people to be creative.
  • Reward the whole team, not just individuals.
  • Train everyone in your company's innovation process.
  • Focus innovation efforts on market needs & opportunities.
  • Target value and results instead of novelty.
  • Abandon old and the obsolete ways, but do so systematically.
  • Set high goals, but reward small improvements.
  • Focus on "new and different" as well as "better and more."
  • Ask, "Is this the right opportunity?"
  • Establish specific accountabilities and targets.
  • Understand that innovation can require long lead time.
  • Accept innovation is an absolute survival skill.
  • Keep innovating; today's success is built on yesterday's results.
  • Remember, innovation is both hard work and fun.
  • Start small, but START.

    • Marcia Zidle, the 'people smarts' coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job ? to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management.

    Subscribe by going to http://leadershiphooks.com and get the bonus report "61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers". Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks ? resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs ? fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.

    In The News:

    Art Guild offers beauty and creativity
    Glenwood Springs Post Independent, CO - 5 hours ago
    In knowing them and their work, I have found a wonderful new source of inspiration and creative energy," said art guild member Annie Bell. ...

    Art therapists use creativity to help people express suppressed ...
    Irish Times, Ireland - 23 hours ago
    Chairwoman of the Irish Association of Creative Art Therapists (IACAT), Suzie Cahn explains that art therapy is used to help people express their feelings ...

    Creativity name of game in baby choices
    Ipswich Queensland Times, Australia - 12 hours ago
    By Felicity Caldwell IPSWICH parents have proved themselves to be just as creative with baby names as Hollywood parents Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, ...

    Pakenham Cardinia Leader
    Thriving on creativity in Bunyip
    Pakenham Cardinia Leader, Australia - 8 hours ago
    A BUNYIP artist has been selected to exhibit in the Cancer Council Victoria Arts Awards 2008. Simon Robbins' moving Defragmentation in Progress, ...

    Local youth nourish creativity during computer camp
    The Northern Light, Canada - Jul 7, 2008
    She said the camp is a chance for youth to show their creativity. "Children are naturally creative and they're naturally curious, which makes them very good ...

    When British Advertising Led The World
    OUPblog, New York - 3 hours ago
    It did so creatively – but it did so in other ways too, which underpinned the creativity, making it more effective and successful. The emergence of Britain ...

    Daily Star - Lebanon
    Lebanese showcase their creativity at Beirut handicraft exhibition
    Daily Star - Lebanon, Lebanon - Jul 6, 2008
    "The idea really started around 20 years ago in [the mountainous town of] Faqra, to promote the creative handicrafts of the village of Beit Chabeb," said ...

    Blast has the Power for three days of creativity
    Liverpool Daily Post, UK - Jul 7, 2008
    Co-ordinator Eddie Fitzpatrick added: “Blast’s aim is simple: to encourage young people to express themselves through creativity. ...

    Children enjoy festival of creativity
    Malvern Gazette, UK - Jul 7, 2008
    CHILDREN from local primary schools took part in a festival of storytelling and creativity at the University of Worcester. The pupils from Cradley CE ...

    Today, papers are obesssed with 'creativity' and 'innovation', but ...
    guardian.co.uk, UK - Jul 5, 2008
    Corporations love creativity. They say so all the time. Some, like the Chicago Tribune, even have a guy in charge of innovations, an officially certified ...
    creativity - Google News


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