futurethink

This Innovation QuickWin is called “Problem Swap.” How many times do we find ourselves trying to solve a problem in our own silos? Why not get another perspective on it?

This tip is easy. Research has shown that when we solve problems on behalf of others, we come up with better solutions faster. So “Problem Swap” is simple—find someone who also has a work-related problem, share your problems with each other, and together brainstorm ideas and solutions. You’re going to come up with something that you wouldn’t have thought of on your own, and those solutions will come faster.

For other tips like this, please go to futurethink.com and check out our e-learning course on encouraging teams to better collaborate and share.

Within, Adjacent, and Beyond is about partnering: something that’s very critical to success with innovation today, to mitigate your risk and to share the reward.

Partnering is something that everyone talks about doing, but rarely gets creative about. We use a technique at futurethink called “Within, Adjacent , and Beyond,” and here’s how it works when it comes to partnering:

Sit down with your team and think about a product or service that could really use a partnership from the outside to really take it to the next level, and then think about “Within”. Who are the partners within your industry, even your competitors, that could take you to the next level?

This Innovation QuickWin is designed to help teams reverse the assumptions that they have around existing products or services and get them out of the mindset of what can’t happen and start to think about what can.

Next time, before a brainstorm, try this as a warm-up exercise. Get people into a room and maybe pair them up in teams of two or three. Give them everyday objects that they interact with all the time e.g. a paperclip, or a pair of scissors, or a marker; you get the idea.

Give them this challenge: let them know that the R&D group has just presented them with this new product and that it’s their job in the next 10 minutes to name it, come up with its benefits, and the audience that they would sell it to.

This Innovation QuickWin is about where next year will take you. For many people, you are well into your budget-planning season or your strategic-planning season. It should be a time of great inspiration for all of us. Unfortunately, it’s BORING. So let’s take strategic planning and turn it on its head. Here are a few tips on how to really challenge yourself in the upcoming year. 

Try this:

First of all, FOCUS. Rather than a laundry list of all the things you’re going to achieve, what is your No. 1 goal and why? Challenge yourself to spend some time thinking about this. 

Second, INSPIRATION. Too often our PowerPoint decks are laden with jargon: what vision or cause is tied to your business or product that makes it truly different? And, how can you articulate it in a way that really inspires people? Better yet, take a page from the playbook of other leading innovators and articulate your vision or inspiration in a picture, in a video, or in a story or narrative that really brings your strategic plan to life.

The ultimate litmus test for your strategic plan will come at this time next year, when you look at your strategic plan, and realize that you have to create a new one because you have achieved all of your goals.