How often do you invest in a technology, feature, product packaging, advertisement or whatever so that you can keep up with a competitor?
I understand. It’s human nature. As kids, we ask for things because our friends have them – and the following continues. That’s partly because our mindware (software) is programmed to follow others as part of our herd instinct. It’s also because we are pattern-creating beings. From the moment we’re born, our begins creating mindware programs to automate our responses to our world. Unfortunately, we create automated patterns that become outmoded over time, or are not applicable in different situations.
In business we clamor for that ‘me too’ thing. We get stuck in the status quo of competitive focus and a continual game of leapfrog, often dulling our ability to think and create out-of-the-box.
Fueling Ideal Innovation
Humans are designed for innovation. We’re the only animal that has the ability to foresee a future that is different than our present. We’re also the only creature that is capable of creating new programs and intersections within our mindware to drive new experiences and behavior. We can literally manipulate our world and what we see by shifting our mindware.
Here are 3 tips to inspire innovation in your teams:
1) Stimulate diversity.
Human minds learn from experience. By exposing our teams to a diversity of information and insights, we can increase our ability to think creatively. Instead of sitting inside your building in meetings discussing innovation – get out into your market and expose your teams to a broad array of new ideas and insights. Go outside of your industry to get even more new ideas.
2) Reduce stress and pressure in your environment.
When we feel stress or threats, we hunker into survival mind and our automated programs take control of our thinking and behaviors. To think creatively, we need to move into conscious thinking, using our prefrontal cortex. The more relaxed and safe we feel, the more our cortex engages. That’s why it’s critical that as leaders we create a safe, highly stimulating and low pressure environment to inspire innovation.
3) Create an innovation room.
Imagine a place where people can go to create freely. A place filled with whiteboards and markers, prototyping tools, great examples of innovation of our times and even play dough! In such a space, there is no wrong idea, no bad thinking. Everything is an opportunity to expand and think out of the box. An innovation space can trigger the happy drug for our minds, dopamine. Once we are flush with dopamine – our creativity soars.
The Bottom Line
Thanks to the knowledge of neuroscience, we now understand the inner workings of our minds; how we slip into survival mode, how we process our sensory information, how we develop our own mental programs.
We now understand how humans create new programs within our mindware to automate our response to our world. We also understand how to short circuit these automated programs to inspire innovation and creating thinking.
21st century leaders can innovate their way to business success by understanding how to motivate the human mind to think creatively, then applying this learning to their teams and themselves. How cool is that?
4 Comments
Kent Julian
May 14, 2013 - 7:53 amThis one line is so simple, yet so powerful: “Go outside of your industry to get even more new ideas.” It’s hard to see the outside of a glass when you’re constantly stuck inside the glass.
rebel brown
June 16, 2013 - 10:00 amThanks for stopping by Kent. I apologize for my delay in getting backto you – I had tech fairies in my comments system on my new site and just saw the comments this weekend.
BAck to your comment – isn’t it amazing how we trap ourselves inside the same circles, teams, herds and more – getting the same opinions from folks drinking the same Koolaid over and over? Then there’s the inclination to see what the competition is doing and adapt based on their direction. Sigh – nothing we do that follows the competition will make us a market leader. So why do we do it? The answer is our programs. We like to stick with the status quo, with whats safe and comfortable.
That’s why I suggest to clients that they get outside of their industry and outside of their fave customers to get great new insights. When we shuffle our data and focus on learning from new sources – we get a totally new and fresh perspective. Thats where great creativity and new innovation are found – now inside our own building or organization!
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!
Patrick McFadden
May 15, 2013 - 7:09 amAs a marketer I also see challenge of a new invention being as this process:
2% of your challenge – Protecting your Idea (Patent, Trademark, Copyright)
8% of your challenge – Is it a valid idea or product?
90% of your challenge – What is your Marketing Plan?
rebel brown
June 16, 2013 - 9:06 amWellPatrick – thats a tactical look at the process of what you do after the innovation – but how do you step into the best mindset to create that great new innovation? Thats the focus of the post – and in my opinion way more than 8% of the effort. I’ve seen great marketing plans fail due to less than powerful innovation.
THanks for sharing the tactics!
reb