Change for the Better
Changes are inevitable, in life there are only two certainties, namely death and taxes. Human evolve through the dinosaur age and today technology advancement had made the rate of changes accelerate at a speed never seen before. You are living in a world which leaves you with two choices, continue to live in your own world and hope change won't affect you or open your eyes and discover ways to use change to your advantage, by innovating and discovering new ways of doing things.
Innovation a Necessity
Look at companies, in the past, those which were not creative or innovative, could chug along and still make money from consumers. Once large companies like Kodak which did not adapt, innovate and create new products, have over the years seen their businesses going down the hill.
In the world we now inhabit, business cycle is estimated to be around eleven months and it is getting shorter and shorter every year. Companies that cannot innovated and found new more creative ways of servicing their markets are likely to close their doors in due time.
Unavoidable Change
The consumers market you service may have changed as buyer expectations and needs may have evolved and your product may have even become obsolete, due to new products or services, which have appeared on the market, over the past few months. When Apple founder, the late Steve Job launched the iphone into the market, suddenly the once unbeatable personal computer market owned by Intel and Microsoft start to feel the pain as the sales of laptop goes down year after year.
As employees, the secret is not only to survive, we also need to constantly survey everything going on around us and keep learning to improving our skills. Ignoring change is most certainly not bliss. Ignorance is failure, regret and could even cause you to lose your job which had made redundant by automation.
Action Idea
Set a weekly schedule time on your smartphone to remind you to survey your world. Look at your home and work surroundings with open eyes and try to discover all the changes going on around you. For example, I schedule time every Saturday afternoon at 10 am, to survey my world. I write down a checklist of questions to ask myself. This is to ensure that I explore, discover and answer every question on my list. Self-questioning helps me to stay awake and be aware of any changes, which may negatively affect me or which may offer me new opportunities.
Example Checklist I use for Innovation
- What is changed in my working industry?
- For those working for your own business, ask what has changed in the markets you service?
- Are there any new opportunities which have sprung up in my work place?
- Are there any improvement or changes around your living community?
- Are there any changes in my country?
- What changes are emerging around the world?
- What are the new challenges which have presented themselves?
- What new techniques or technologies have come to light?
- How can I adapt and learn to take advantage of these changes?
Innovation
For any innovation to work within any organization, top management must create a culture of innovation within the business. Innovation is an on-going commitment within the organization, which must happen daily and be an ingrained part of the culture of the business. Stakeholders have to create an working environment where everyone is responsible to observe and see change or opportunities. This will yield far better results, than would be the case if there were only a few people within the organization tasked with innovating. When there are more eyes there observing, the greater the chance of identifying opportunity or threats.
Action Idea
Those organizations that wish to thrive and use innovation as a tool for growth and expansion, must hold monthly innovation meetings. These are monthly meetings, where new innovative ideas are tabled and changes in the market are explored, the purpose is to try and uncover new opportunities or threats. These meetings must not criticize anyone, and it need to record all the ideas and brainstorm any changes and opportunities. A separate innovation meeting must be convened later to explore and evaluate all the ideas. My own experience in such meeting shown that if you try to evaluate ideas at the first meeting, you are likely to spoil the flow and reduce the effectiveness of uncovering really great and innovative ideas.
Our Creativity
When we are age two and below, over 80 % of children test out as creative. As we grow older, the pressure of our schools system and the demands placed on our children to conform to societies norms start to change us. When we reach the age of ten, the number of creative people has dropped to only 2 % and this continues for the rest of our lives. What had happened to all those creative children? All of them are still there; it is just that they have turned the volume down on their creative side.
Unlocking Creatively
If you wish to unlock your creative juices, it requires you to re-develop those neural pathways, which were lost as a child. It has taken many years to lose your creative neural pathways, so don't expect them to reappear overnight. You need to have patience and follow the few recommendations listed below:
If you like to listen to the radio, use the seek button on your radio to search for the next available channel. Whatever radio channel comes up, force yourself to listen to it for the rest of the day. This example start to pulls you out of you comfort zone and forces you to listen to music you are unfamiliar with. It start to train your brain to hears this and goes, wow I have not heard this before, I better form a few new neural pathways to help me interpret this, should I hear it in the future. Those new neural pathways, which will help you to awaken those slumbering creative neural pathways, which have been asleep since your early childhood.
At a restaurant, order something unusual, which will challenge your taste buds. This again create new sensation and will cause you to develop new creative neural pathways.
You can do this with books or other regular things you like to do.
Try to engage in as many new activities as possible, try writing with your other hand, eat with your knife and fork in the other hand, dance, walk backwards, balance on one leg etc. The more usual things you can change the greater will be your ability to re-awaken that slumbering creative person hidden within you.
If you seek to thrive and not just survive, then Innovation must become a way of life, something you are, not something you do. Once you learn to live in this change way, you will be astounded at how creative and innovative you become. You start dreaming up new ideas and better ways of doing things, it will just be the norm and the way you do things.
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