There is an ice-breaker game, meant to build team work where you pass a hula-hoop down the line of people while holding hands. The goal is to get yourself through the hoop as fast as you can, passing it to your partner. It is a simple, fun outdoor game that many a summer camp attendee has experienced. Typically the winners are the smaller kids who are able to fit through the hoops the fastest, while passing it down the line with ease.
But what about this...
Some might say..."That's cheating!" But is it?
Innovation at is core is making something new and better. It doesn't have to be completely changed, but small perspectives can bring huge rewards to the action being changed.
At your next meeting, try to shift your perspective and think about a different way to pass the hula-hoop.
Here are 3 ways to help innovation Thrive:
One: Abandon your pre-concieved notions and look at the problem from a different perspective.
One of my favorite exercises was to take lesson plans that I was writing, or Project Based Learning Experiences that I was designing and go through it as if I was one of my students. I would try to look at it with 1/2 the attention span and 1/32 the passion or inspiration for the topic that we were studying. I had to ask the question, would I do this if I was running on hormones and Dr. Pepper? Could there be a way that I could do the least amount possible and still get a high enough grade that my mom wouldn't get mad at me?
Just because you might be the leader or the teacher doesn't always mean that your process or perspective is correct. Envision you audience, watch yourself from the desk and see if the message you are presenting is actually the one they are recieving.
Two: Humble yourself to recieve HONEST opinions of your work.
Steve Jobs is famous for the stories that were told of him being brutally honest about the work of those around him. He is quoted calling peoples ideas "pieces of Sh*t". He was ruthless and brutally honest. Yet it challenged those who worked for him to do two things. Not take the criticism personally, and to iterate and innovate better ideas. Once they were able to bring the ideas back, be brutally honest to Jobs, he would show is approval by taking the idea and claiming it as his own. The stereotypical boss of the company taking the credit. Is the culture that you work in a space where you can honestly provide ideas and feedback without reprecussion or concern? Are you able to take honest feedback that might cause your bones to rattle? Develop that culture, humble yourself, and see what innovations can come.
Three: Fail hard, fail fast, fail often, and fail some more.
the theme here? To innovate means to build oneself or idea up into a new version. This doesn't happen by magic or deep inspiration at the climax of the movie. Innovation is a step by step process and the key is failure. When we fail, we learn. When we learn, we get to try agin with a new idea and fail once again. The problem is, with certain industries and standards (state standardized tests...cough) it is hard to encourage free experimentation and failure because there is so much at stake and not a lot of time. Yet the research shows (and you can catch more info on this in the book Diary of a CEO by Stephen Bartlett), the most successful companies provide opportunities and encouragement for creativity, experimentation and failure.
Embracing an audacious idea often paves the way for chasing innovation beyond the status quo, as it unlocks a realm of creativity with great potential for failure, and ultimately serves as the stepping stones for future successes.
Find those wings, tattered and pieced together, and let's start to fly!
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