Innovation means different things to different people.
On a granular level, it means creating new things out of old things. More generally, innovation can mean doing things in a completely new and different way.
Innovation is a state. It is something you practice. So if you never want to run out of ideas, here are ways to stay in a constant state of innovation.
Read, watch, listen, observe, and gain exposure to new ideas.
There’s a great Fast Company piece titled, “Want to be unstoppable? Work at an intersection.”
The takeaway is that the best ideas happen in the places people least expect to find them. Moments of inspiration come right after you’ve read a book about a topic you knew nothing about before, or right after watching a random documentary recommended to you by a friend. These moments or sparks result from hearing or learning about something new and combining that with the information you’ve accumulated throughout your entire life.
Engineering more of these “unlikely intersections” in our lives has the potential to unlock endless amounts of creativity.
Change your environment, and see how it impacts your creative output.
Not all environments are created equal. It is worth noting that our environment isn’t just about “where” we are working. It is also about the people we’re sharing the space with.
Some work environments naturally foster creativity because they’re full of highly creative people — people that are naturally idea generators. Other environments hinder innovation because people are driven or incentivized by other things (like getting a promotion or satisfying a challenging client). So finding ways to not only choose your physical environment but also your community, is important in order to remain open and willing to pursue new ideas.
And sometimes we have more control over our environments than we think. A walk around the block or a chat with someone outside of your coworking group can provide that breath of fresh air we need, literally and figuratively, to reboot our creative engine
It’s all about openness.
Creativity is an emotional process.
Sometimes creativity can feel uncomfortable. If you aren’t open to ideas that challenge the current status quo, you’re going to have a very hard time innovating. For example, if you are focused on not losing your job versus expanding your current one, you’re probably not going to want to push boundaries or “rock the boat” — you may be in a risk-averse mindset without even realizing it.
This drove me crazy working in big corporate environments early on in my career. People seemed a lot less focused on building the business and creating something new, and a lot more concerned with incremental improvements and making themselves look good to leadership. And while this may seem like a good move in the short term, it certainly doesn’t do much to flex the creativity muscle or create real progress or innovation. And that can become a dangerous cycle: it makes it harder as time goes on to be creative, or for those around you to be creative.
Guts and bravery
Building on the above, bravery is a big part of innovation.
It’s hard being the person in the room suggesting something totally different. You’re really putting yourself out there. It’s especially difficult when you believe a new direction is a right direction and 99% of people don’t agree with you. There’s a certain level of self-belief that comes with being a true innovator. You have to be willing to take chances. You have to have guts.
