Hi it’s Dave here.
I hope that you are having a fantastic week so far! I really know that life is moving forwards for me at the moment, and I am choosing to be Unstoppable.
I hope that you are having a fantastic week so far! I really know that life is moving forwards for me at the moment, and I am choosing to be Unstoppable.
About 2 years or so ago I compiled this
piece out of several articles that I had read around the time. As I was reading through it again I realised
that the points I made then are just as relevant today. So I decided to share them and I hope that
you will enjoy reading about the
7 Core Principles of Innovation
Innovation and creativity must be
encouraged and nurtured if we are to climb out of this part of our history that
is classed as a Global Recession.
There are 7 core principles that can be
used to help you stand out from the rest. Using these 7 principles can help you
to think differently and re-invent your product, your service, your company and
even yourself.
So let us take a look at these 7
principles and see how we are able to make use of them in our lives.
Core Principle 1 – Do What You Love!
This is another way of saying “follow your
passion” because if you love doing something it feels easy to you, time passes
quickly and you get lots done. However,
you will also need to add into that guts and determination if you are going to
successfully follow your heart and your intuition.
Once you find something that you are
passionate about the odds for success become stacked in your favour. If you add to that passion a large chunk of
perseverance, the two will go hand in hand towards your success.
However, if you have lots of passion and
no perseverance or you are filled with perseverance but without the necessary
passion, you will give up and your project will end up on the cutting room
floor.
Core Principle 2 – Make a Hole in the
Whole
By being a visionary you will attract
other visionaries to you, people who see what you see and who can assist you in
turning your ideas into earth shattering innovations.
If you have a vision, you have an
extremely powerful piece of “kit in your arsenal” to help move your brand
forwards.
All the world's inspiring visions share the
same 4 basic principles
·– bold
·- specific
·- concise
·- consistently communicated
Innovation moves society forwards but this
does not happen without someone having a bold vision.
Ask yourself what is your particular
vision – for your career, your company, your products etc.
You need to follow your passion as I
indicated in Core Principle 1 by doing all the things that you are passionate
about BUT if we make an analogy to a space rocket – your passion will provide
the fuel for the motors while you vision will provide the guidance systems.
Core Principle 3 – Put Your Brain In Gear
Innovative ideas are born out of
creativity – one possible definition of creativity it that of connecting
things.
There is a belief that a broad set of
experiences expand our understanding of being human, extending from this
thinking it follows that the wider the field of understanding the greater the
chance of breakthroughs happening that others may have missed.
The technique of breakthrough innovation
needs and requires creativity and creativity requires that you think
differently about the way you think.
Scientists have determined that innovators
think differently to the rest of society but that they use a technique that is
readily available to each and every one of us – they seek out different and
varied experiences.
Look outside of your own niche for
inspiration. Have as many new
experiences as possible and remove the ropes and chains that bind you to your
old and past experiences.
Core Principle 4 – Dreams Not Products
Don’t rely on focus groups “avoid most focus groups like the plague,”
says technical analyst Rob Enderle. “It comes down to the very real fact that
most customers don’t know what they want in a new product.”
You can always “listen” to your customers
and ask them for feedback but don't ever ask them what they want. However you can never go out and directly ask
people ‘What’s the next big thing?’
There’s a great quote by Henry Ford. He
said, “If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me
‘A faster horse.’”
So let me now ask you a question:-
How do you see your customers?
If you devise ways to help them unleash
their inner genius, you will undoubtedly win over their hearts and minds.
Here is a harsh fact that most people do
not recognise - Nobody cares about your company or product! They care about themselves, their dreams, and
their goals. Help them achieve their aspirations, and you will win them over.
Core Priniciple 5 – Don't Be Afraid To Say
No!
The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computing is quoted as saying “the secret to innovation is “saying no to
1,000 things.”
Put another way be as proud of what you or
your business does not do as you are about what you do choose to pursue.
Your customers demand simplicity, and
simplicity requires that you eliminate anything that clutters the user
experience — whether in product design, website navigation, marketing and
advertising materials, or presentation slides. Say “no” more often than “yes.”
This advice applies to your career and
personal life as well.
The lesson - don’t spread yourself too
thin!
Find the career that intersects your
passion, skill, and has the ability to make money whilst you are doing it.
Then once you find it, focus on it, work
at it, and dedicate yourself to pursuing excellence in that area.
Say “no” to anything that will distract
you from pursuing that career.
If you are looking for work or you are
frustrated with your current job, there will be plenty of friends, families,
and colleagues who offer unsolicited advice on what’s best for you. Filter out the ideas that might derail you
from the career that best matches your strengths and passion. Then, when you find your target, pursue it
with a single-minded sense of purpose.
Core Principle 6 – Create Great
Experiences
By introducing simple innovations any
business can adopt to create deeper, more emotional connections with their
customers. For example, there are no
cashiers in an Apple store. There are experts, consultants, even geniuses, but
no cashiers.
According to Steve Jobs, “People don’t
want to just buy personal computers anymore. They want to know what they can do
with them, and we’re going to show people exactly that.”
Attract shoppers, not by moving boxes, but
by “enriching lives.”
In the example of Apple they offer
customers a concierge-like experience, much like a customer would receive in an
elegant hotel. The lesson here being - don’t move the “product.” enrich lives
instead and then watch your sales soar.
Carefully review each “customer touch
point” with your brand, and take the opportunity to create more meaningful
relationships with your consumers. Look
outside your company for ideas on how to stand out from your competitors.
Above all, have fun and engender passion
amongst your team. . Passion is contagious. If your employees are not having
fun, your customers will not be, either.
Core Principle 7 – Master The Message
You can have the most innovative idea in
the world, but if you can’t get people excited about it, it doesn’t matter. For every idea that turns into a successful
innovation, there are thousands of ideas that never gain traction. This happens because the people behind those
ideas failed to tell a compelling story.
You are being judged to a large degree on
your ability to communicate what you do. The big difference between
extraordinary communicators and the average leader is that they use
presentations to complement the message. The speaker is the storyteller; PowerPoint
Slides or similar visual aids generally
serve as a backdrop to the story.
To give the ultimate in presentations, you
must learn to avoid bullet points and to think visually about bringing a story
to life.
As a footnote to the above ask yourself
this question “What Would Hitchcock Do?
In a documentary on the making of the film
Jaws, Steven Spielberg said that he was forced to improvise when the mechanical
shark failed. He asked himself that very question, “What Would Hitchcock Do?” and when his answer came back it was quite
simply:
Hitchcock would never
show the shark.
So that brings us to the end of this
week’s post, I really hope that you have found it useful
If this has made you think about how you
act, or if it has prompted any questions, then please feel free to add them as
a comment in the box below or to email me:- thedavebaxter@mail.com
About Dave I am a
coach; speaker; radio presenter and founder of The Blue Sky Company. I am
also a therapist and co-own a virtual light centre called The Crystal Spring. My
therapy work includes music therapy; reiki; crystal therapy
LINKS
Blue Sky Company www.moonshadowmedia.wixsite.com/bluesky
Wytchwynd Photography www.moonshadowmedia.wixsite.com/photographportfolio
I have recently discovered that a book
written by a friend of mine is available via Amazon so I would like to share a
link to that book with you. This lady is
an amazing person and I am sure that if you have enjoyed reading my blog you
will also find her work of interest.
Have a fantastic day and live a life of
Passion and Power.
And above all
Don't Predict The Future - CREATE IT!
DAve
x
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