FOCUS POWERFUL IDEAS
Build your innovation muscle A challenging economy can be the catalyst for game-changing new products and services. Does your business have the courage to innovate? Writing Jamie Jones
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nnovation is not just an opportunistic pathway to growth. In times of economic uncertainty and market volatility, it is a necessity. But to succeed, companies seeking to catalyze organic growth will need to ensure their people and organization are prepared to innovate. Are you and your organization equipped with the right mindset, skills and processes to win? Examples of innovation rising from the ashes of economic downturns are abundant. The recession of the 1970s, characterized by rising labor costs, witnessed the birth of transformative solutions, such as automatic teller machines (ATMs) and consumer bar code scanners. Fast-forward to the recession of the late 2000s, a period marred by financial upheaval and widespread uncertainty. It led to the emergence of freelance and gig economy platforms like Upwork and TaskRabbit that
Societal conditioning often discourages questioning, which can be seen as rebellious or defiant
provided individuals with avenues to earn income during precarious times, and startup crowdfunding platforms, which offered sources of investment when traditional funding seemed scarce. As we find ourselves, once again, staring down the barrel of substantial economic uncertainty, companies that fail to innovate risk being left behind. Being prepared to excel through today’s macroeconomic shifts requires both organizational and individual readiness. The journey toward innovation begins with recognizing that innovation is not a solitary pursuit, but a collective effort that thrives in an ecosystem designed to support it. As a leader, your role is to foster innovation by enabling individuals to build their innovation muscle, and by sculpting an organizational structure that nurtures and amplifies innovative endeavors. The good news is that every member of your team has an innate capacity for innovation that you can unlock through training and practice. The path to a good idea is to have more ideas, which in turn requires creativity. Creativity is fueled by a set of competencies and behaviors that are proven to generate novel ideas: curiosity and questioning, observing, and associating. Nurturing these intertwined abilities can help individuals and teams produce more innovative ideas, but only if care is taken to develop the innovation muscles and overcome psychological and behavioral inhibitors.
Curiosity and questioning Our desire to learn fuels exploration and understanding, which we often achieve through the act of questioning. Curiosity prompts individuals and teams to question the status quo, challenge assumptions, and explore new possibilities. Questioning the status quo leads to exploration and the discovery of new perspectives and ideas. Through asking questions, people seek to understand the world around them more deeply, thereby spurring new insights – although they often generate even more questions. As humans, we are born questioners, as anyone who has spent time with a four-year-old will know. (Why is the sky blue? Where do babies come from? Where do we go when we die?) Asking questions is how we learn and nurture our curiosity. However, our questioning of the world around us declines rapidly after the age of four. Societal conditioning often discourages questioning, which can be seen as rebellious or defiant. Questioning can make others uncomfortable and, in our desire to be liked, we limit our questions to areas that are less likely to challenge assumptions and norms. Who has not felt the ire of a colleague or boss when you ask, “Why are we doing this [business practice]?”
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