Innovate More
Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money, Time
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” – Thomas Alva Edison
“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Innovation is a strange animal because it can’t thrive when we’re working a hundred miles an hour. It likes the peace and quiet of an outside perspective.
Some major corporations actually understand this simple truth and give their teams members time to innovate. For the past decade I’ve been working in technology and marketing roles in corporate America and from my perspective I’ve noticed a simple trend. The companies that are able to strike a balance between innovation and delivery succeed. Those that focus too closely on the tasks in front of them without the occasional moment to look up and plan for the future find themselves running out of steam and opportunity.
When you take the time to innovate at home or work you are giving yourself permission to be creative. Not necessarily in an artistic way but in a puzzle solving sense. The feeling you get from finding a new or better way of completing a task or approaching a problem pays you back ten fold. How we feel about ourselves is often the most important part of of lives.
Taking time to innovate gives you the opportunity to take a leap forward and reap the rewards. If your boss doesn’t give you the time to innovate at work find a way to take the time because the best employees are the people who take it upon themselves to be proactive and do a better job. If that’s not rewarded where you work look for a better job.
Short Example
Back when I was a starving artist I discovered a little truth about innovation and getting work done. I was making pottery and every weekend I loaded up my little car and hit the road to make enough money to get through the next week.
I was working seven days a week and found that the I just had to give myself a break on Mondays. Instead of really taking a break I let my self play with new ideas in the studio. Over the weekend I would get a lot of feedback from customers and it would inspire me to try new ideas that I could test the following weekend. My innovation Mondays were essential for my peace of mind. The rest of the week I focused on production to make the things I knew I could sell.
Take Action
- Give yourself time to innovate at work and home.
- Look for ways of doing things faster.
- Look for ways of doing things cheaper.
- Give yourself permission to think outside the box and try not to squelch any brainstorm. You can always discard ideas later.
- Separate innovation time from production time especially in the beginning.
