Business innovation and creativity; is adding it easier said than done?
Honing your business idea, your customer profile and your product and service offer is difficult enough. Then you have to constantly think of new and interesting ways to engage and communicate with your customers. Business innovation and creativity is NOT easy.
Add to that the need to find ways to keep your enthusiasm and accountability for your business fresh (particularly difficult if you are a one-person, micro-business) – being innovative and creative can be REALLY HARD.
So, to take the pressure off you to come up with ways to increase your business innovation and creativity – as well as increase your business success – here are five things I have identified that will help.
1. Changing Your Work Space
If you always work in the same space, at the same desk, sitting in the same chair you will encourage your brain to think in exactly the same way.
Business innovation and creativity come from allowing the brain to think differently; to make connections or find inspiration in places it has never been before. So changing your space can be a great way of encouraging creative and innovative thought.
Go for a walk, do some exercise, work from a different desk sitting in a different chair, stand up rather than sit down – all of these things will help.
2. Keep a ‘Eureka Book’ with You at All Times
Where do you have your best ideas?
With me, it’s when I am driving; with a very good friend it’s when she is in the shower.
The point here is that, usually, our best ideas sneak up on us.
The best time to have a great idea? It’s when you are thinking about something completely different – like driving carefully or washing your hair! So having a method for capturing those ideas when they pop into your mind is essential. Otherwise they will pop straight back out again and will be lost.
Therefore you need a place to immediately record these ideas and a notebook is just one example. How do I (safely) do it while I am driving? Simple. My car has a Bluetooth phone connection so I call my office and leave a message on my answerphone.
And what about my friend in the shower? Would you believe it, she has a waterproof pad of paper and a pen!
3. Business Innovation and Creativity can Come from Doing Mundane Things
Following on from the Eureka Book, mundane tasks such as filing, cleaning, sorting out papers etc can be a method of allowing your brain free reign to have flights of creative fancy.
When I was an employee my colleagues would laugh at me on what they called ‘Bin-Bag Days’. They knew that, on the days I got out my roll of bin-bags and started sorting through (and discarding) paperwork, my brain was not firing on all cylinders. They also knew that, by the end of the process, I would usually come up with the solution to whatever problem or issue my brain was having difficulty in dealing with.
And, do you know – I still do the same in my business.
I have a really tidy and organised filing system on my PC because that’s my go-to place when I need to clear out space in my brain for new ideas.
So, the next time you see a pile of washing don’t think of it as a chore; think of it as a way to open your mind to creativity and innovation.
4. Talk to People
At this precise point in time, the idea of talking to people outside your immediate circle is a bit of a no-no. But the world will not always be as it is now.
Getting out of your own space could mean attending a networking event or a training course where you will meet other business-focussed people who may act as a spark for your imagination.
However, talking to anyone can help.
Yes, you may feel a bit odd striking up conversations with complete strangers, but those people in the queue at Tesco, or the bus stop, or the train journey home can be just as helpful (and if we all did it the world would be a nicer place too!)
5. Do Something Child-Like
The problem with getting older is that we lose the sheer joy and enthusiasm for life that children have.
Give a child a plain cardboard box and it’s a rocket ship, a fort, a fairy castle.
For greater business innovation and creativity, release your inner-child and do something child-like – run around the park, play a board game, make something out of a cardboard box.
You will be amazed at the ideas you can come up with. And you will have had some fun too.
So, Now It’s Over to You
What do you do to ensure business innovation and creativity?
Share in the comments box below. You never know, your idea may be the spark to light someone else’s imagination!