Want to be more innovative in your thinking but not sure where to start? Why not start with a helicopter view of what you do and how you do it, and from there identify the likely targets to think about.

Identify everything you provide, every process you have, every problem that stands in your way, and why you do the things you do and then you have got a starting point for potential innovation in your organisation.  Now you have a list, you can break it down…

Scan the list

  • identify the products and processes that work, that you don’t want to re-think and then put them in a box marked “don’t need to mess with this stuff for 12 months”
  • identify the products and processes that don’t work and then re-think them or get rid of them
  • identify the problems that you think you can solve and then get cracking

This work will created an opportunity list for innovation, all you need to do is select which item to work on and you are ready to go.  All this should keep you going for a while, innovating your product line (existing and new), innovating your processes and then removing the things that stand in your way.  And once you have finished, you can start the thinking all over again.

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Written by Lisa Smith

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Lisa is a professional thinker dedicated to helping people unlock their innate creativity and to empower them to think differently – for themselves. She is passionate about building innovative cultures and about harnessing and engaging talent to create thinking communities. Lisa holds an MBA, specialising in organisational change and innovation, which forms the nucleus of her work. She relishes opportunities to share the Minds at Work thinking strategies with government bodies, socially responsible corporate, educators, community groups and farmers, helping them to turn their big ideas into realities.