10 Ways You Can Innovate at Work Every Single Day
Quick: What sounds more fun? Filling in spreadsheets with data for eight hours or coming up with new and exciting ideas?
I’ll go ahead and assume you went with option two. The opportunity to
innovate is something most of us want more of in our daily work lives.
Yet often, we feel we can’t be more creative at work because of factors
beyond our control. Perhaps your company is risk-averse and likes to
play it safe, perhaps your targets are intimidatingly aggressive, or
perhaps the sheer size of your to-do list makes adding anything new feel
impossible.
While a lot of these may be true, there are also some tips and tricks
almost anyone can adopt to keep your innovation muscles strong and
ready to go. And like any muscle group, the more you practice it, the
stronger, better, and more unstoppable it becomes. Here are 10 things
you can do on the job to make it easier to be more innovative every
single day.
1. Start Conducting Stand-Up Meetings
Your entire energy changes when you’re standing. Unsurprisingly, the
entire energy of a meeting does, too. Convert one of your meetings to a
standing one and watch the momentum, enthusiasm, and action soar.
They’ll move faster and be more action-orientated and more likely to
motivate your team. Need help convincing your boss? Throw this article on the benefits his or her way.
2. Surround Yourself With Inspiration
Whenever you see something from the big wide world that captures your
attention, put it on display. It can be any discovery: an awesome ad in
a magazine, an unusually arranged menu, or even a well-written email
that made you laugh. The more provocative, the better! If you have space
on a wall near you, eke out a spot where you can display everything.
Or, if you work an open office where wall space is at a minimum, do it
virtually on Pinterest.
3. Get a Buddy
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. Pick a colleague you feel
comfortable with with and make yourselves accountable to each other.
Encourage him or her to keep trying new things, whether it’s trying a
new place for lunch, pitching an idea in an unorthodox manner, sharing
articles that inspire, or just doing some old-fashioned brainstorming.
It’s better—and easier—together.
4. Pick Small Projects
We often think that ideas must always be big, transformative, and
game-changing. But often, it’s lots of small, novel things that add up
to make a huge difference. The benefits to small-scale innovation are
huge. Not only do they happen quickly and (most often) without a lot of
fuss, they also garner the interest and attention of both your team and
organization; thus paving the way for bigger, meatier innovation
projects to follow. Try changing lots of small things, like how you sign
off your emails, how you reward yourself for good work, or how you kick
off meetings.
5. Flip Your Assumptions
We all have things we do with our eyes shut. It’s part of what makes
us excel at our jobs, but also part of what blinds us to opportunities.
Over the course of the day, identify all the tasks you do without
thinking. Take a moment to talk about how you could do them differently.
Sometimes it won’t work (spell check might always be the best way to
proofread your work). However, it will often lead you to find a new way
of doing the same old thing.
6. Bring it to Life
Stop talking and start building! Put your thoughts into words, your
words into pictures, and your pictures into prototypes. When people can
see your idea, they’re less likely to forget it and much more likely to
take it seriously and become involved in its development and
bullet-proofing. Even a bad drawing is better than no drawing.
7. Ban Things
Though it may sound counterintuitive, having constraints and
parameters actually inspire innovation by forcing you to think
dynamically and creatively. As an exercise, start banning things and
exploring the implications. Ban words, ban resources, ban your primary
target market, ban your default communication tools, and watch your
creativity take off. Often, the ideas you settle on will likely be
watered down versions of your initial suggestions, but the point of this
exercise is to spark new thoughts on how to do the same old things.
8. Get Out of the Office
Make a habit of stepping outside even if it’s just to walk around the
block. As you stroll, make a point to notice things. If you need some
discipline on your inspiration hunt, make a game of it and deliberately
hunt for things that begin with the letter A on the first day, B the
second, and so on. Your mind will start connecting dots between what you
see and the problems you left back at the office. That’s the beauty of
our subconscious.
9. Fuel Up on Creativity
For too many of us, checking our phone is the first thing we do each
day. Feed your mind with creativity instead of diving into the email
deluge (that can wait). Pick your favorite song, podcast,
or blog to kick-start the morning. Whatever it is, make sure it fuels
your imagination. You’ll be amazed how much it will inspire your
attitude and creativity throughout the day.
10. Ask Yourself “What Would My Hero Do?”
When you’re stumped with a problem you can’t make any headway on,
call in the big guns. Keep a list near your desk of some of your
favorite creative forces. Then, when a problem strikes, consult your
list and ask yourself what they might do to solve it. Considering how
Willy Wonka would solve a packaging challenge, how Coco Chanel would
tackle a communications issue, and how Salvador Dali would take on
streamlining a supply chain can be very enlightening.
These tricks may seem trivial, but together they force you to see the
world in a new way. And that’s what innovation is all about—seeing
opportunity where no one else can. The more you practice these, the more
easily it will become your default way of thinking—and the more
innovation will become part of your daily work.
source:www.themuse.com
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