Innovate with These Five Ideas

innovateDo you ever wonder how other people come up with great ideas to innovate their businesses, their jobs or their lives?

Sometimes these ideas occur haphazardly and we have an awakening.

However, there are ways we can be more proactive to create ideas that can change our businesses, our jobs and our lives.

Last week I covered a few ideas.

Here are several others that can be utilized to innovate:

Be Present and Alert

If we want to innovate we need to be in the present moment so we can observe the world around us. Opportunities can pass us by if we are preoccupied with thoughts outside of the present.

Let all those thoughts go and begin to observe everything around you. As an example, if you were getting your car fixed, you could observe how you were being serviced or how someone is answering the phone or how a salesperson is presenting a new car to a potential customer.

Treat the present like a learning opportunity and stay alert. We never know what will change our lives if we are not looking for it.

Read About Unrelated Fields

If you are in the printing business read books on leadership or sales or management or customer service outside of the printing business. If all we do is observe our own industry we will become just like everyone else.

If we observe outside of our industry we will have an opportunity to be different than everyone else for the benefit of our people and our customers.

Challenge the Status Quo

How often do we do things the way we have always done them without questioning why we are doing it? We can challenge the status quo by constantly asking “Why am I doing this?” or “Why am I doing it this way?”

If we have the attitude that there is always room for improvement and question the status quo we will put ourselves in a position to innovate.

Brainstorm with Others

When we meet with other people and listen to how they solve issues or create more value in their business there is opportunity to innovate. The brainstorming that results helps to act as a catalyst to engage our thinking in new directions.

Actively engage in these conversations and you will receive ideas you never thought of before. We all think differently.

Join a Mastermind Group

A mastermind group helps the participants set and achieve their goals. It could be a group of business owners or salespeople or customer service people or any other occupation.

The group educates each other and holds each other accountable for progress. I can personally attest to the power of a group like this as a member of a Vistage CEO group for many years.

Innovation is the key to new ideas, new products, new services, or anything else you want to improve in your life. What other ideas do you utilize to generate innovative ideas?