Successful leaders inspire the team who can bring the ‘next big thing’ to life, but it is hard to inspire when you A) Don’t yet know what the next big thing is and B) Are not sure how to even get there. When you have a framework by which you can methodically yet creatively look at your business with your team and develop potential Winning Moves to test and implement, you can cast light on the shadows and start executing.
1. Inspire your team. Encourage your team to get creative and not be risk-averse.
2. Know your core customer. Who do you want to do more business with?
3. Consider a shift.
4. Level the brainstorming field. Make sure all voices from your team are heard without biased influence
5. Make SWOT actionable. Brainstorm your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats,
6. Pitch the ideas.
7. Lighten the testing load. Combining the above ideas on leveling brainstorming with pitching ideas,
8. Don’t wait for Perfection.
Harness creative thinking when things are going well and ask your team: What about it is working? What have we learned? What are our customers saying? What is going on in their world? Your team’s brains will be at the height of creativity when there are no pressures to get there. Their appetite for taking bigger risks will be greater as well. During pressure, our creative thinking declines and our risk aversion increases. Create a clear, inspiring and measurable vision on finding the ‘next big thing’ and get to work.
You may be reading this and thinking, “We’re ahead of the game – sales are up, we’re crushing the competition. No shadows here!” Wonderful to hear. Do you have a cadence for when you will continue to have a Think Rhythm to select the next big thing before external pressures dictate you should? If not, then I suggest you do so.
Experiencing similar threats, you read up on any and all information on how to disrupt the industry and the best ways to create a go to market strategy. You don’t know exactly how to get started with such a huge undertaking. All the while, the shadows are growing taller on the wall of innovation. These shadows are darkened with fear, avoidance, indecision, past failures, and the desire to analyze to the point of motionless. Sound familiar?
“If you can move people by inspiring and building their confidence to own and drive your new strategy, they will be committed to seeing change through and overcoming the organizational constraints you confront.”
Read full article 8 Ways to Cast Light on the Shadows of Innovation in Manufacturing