According to most business books and business geeks out there, the only sure-fire way to create a new sustainable business is by changing the game. Instead of competing with business-as-usual, you must create a new playing field.
Easier said than done. Many of us would love to be the craigslist of our respective businesses, but there is something that holds us back. What is it?
Out of my experience and conversations with business leaders, it appears the real battleground for innovation occurs inside our own minds. We are only as limited as they allow. So, how creative are we really? How can we break through the bondage of our own thinking?
My friend, Adam, sent me a link to a NY Times article on how the physical human brain works. Some of the findings speak volumes as to why it is that innovation is difficult and why it is that (even at our most “creative” of times) we have a hard time truly thinking differently. According to the article:
The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder,” says Dawna Markova, author of “The Open Mind” and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking Partners. “But we are taught instead to ‘decide,’ just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider.’ ” She adds, however, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”
The article goes on to explain that once a certain way of thinking is established in the mind, there is no way to dispose of it. The best that we can do is to try to create a bypass around this old habit with new ones. The benefits are endless.
What if Google saw itself as a search engine? What if ING Direct saw itself as another online bank?
They could have tried to play by the established rules and created yet another separate-but-equal option for consumers.
Instead, these companies chose to create a new habit. New playing fields. New categories. They did so by being willing to be unsure or uncomfortable for a period of time. Putting fears aside and being true innovators or explorers created their enormous success.
Our training tells us to be a decider. To appear sure and self-confident. However, how would it look for us to constantly question, pick apart and seek out new ways of exploring our world?
We must be comfortably uncomfortable to unlock the mind’s potential and create sustainable ideas with execution.
You cannot have innovation,” [Markova] adds, “unless you are willing and able to move through the unknown and go from curiosity to wonder.”
HOMEWORK
What assumptions are you making about yourself or your business? Next time you run into a challenge or problem, say this to yourself: “I will see (insert problem) in new ways.” This is but a beginning, but I can guarantee that if you practice this in your daily life, you will begin to see prodiguous results. Write to me and tell me some of them.
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Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly
Have you seen the book “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne? It’s, in a sense, about creating the new “habits” or “playing fields” you talk about in your post.
Basically the way they put is that in most industries, companies are competing head-on which results in a “bloody ‘red ocean’ of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool.” They argue instead that companies should create a “blue ocean” strategy where they leave the competition behind by creating new, uncontested market space (ie. playing fields).
That’s a pretty bad summary of the book, but you hopefully get the idea!
I have not read that book, but I have heard the “blue ocean” term a couple of times. What I like about approaches like the one in “Blue Ocean Strategy” is that it takes away the pretentiousness that exists around creative types and creates a systematic view of innovation. I love it when the accountant, janitor or receptionist comes up with the next best idea.
Oh yeah, and thanks for the About You idea. I am creating another website for a faith-based group and have already written one.