Paul Sloane is the author of The Leader’s Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills and The Innovative Leader. He writes, talks and runs workshops on lateral thinking, creativity and the leadership of innovation. Find more information at destination-innovation.com.
Continuous innovation is not easy and if you keep using the same method you will experience diminishing results. Try innovating how you innovate by employing some of these ideas from Paul Sloane.
In looking for improvements and innovations we tend to focus our attention on what went wrong. We try to fix problems. A typical management meeting consists of a group of people who are looking at what is not working and trying their hardest to come up with ways to put things right. But in the process they are often allocating blame, arguing, becoming negative and getting frustrated.
There are many different ways to lead. CEOs with markedly divergent styles can be successful in different ways. The same leader will often adopt different styles in different circumstances. There is no one correct way to lead or manage. Ultimately the right way is the one that works for you and for the organization in delivering the goals you set out to achieve. In this article, Paul Sloane compares and contrasts the characteristics of innovative and command-and-control leaders.
The most innovative leaders have a mindset like that of a venture capitalist. They take a portfolio view of innovation projects. The venture capitalist will invest in a basket of different start-up companies, fully knowing that most will fail. A few might break even and one or two might be successes. But one big success can pay back the costs of all the failures. Even though he is smart, the VC does not know at the outset which ventures will succeed and which will fail so initially he backs them all. As time goes on he cuts funding for the failures and gives more to the winners.
You cannot expect your team to be innovative if they do not know the direction in which they are headed, warns Paul Sloane.
Paul Sloane highlights how some of the world's biggest companies are utilizing open innovation and collaboration strategies in creative ways to create highly successful new products and services.
How can you think of things that no-one else thinks of? The answer is by deliberately taking a different approach to the issue from everyone else. There are dominant ideas in every field. The innovative thinker purposefully challenges those dominant ideas in order to conceive new possibilities, explains Paul Sloane.
When you are cutting costs and squeezing resources in all areas how can you find the people, time and money for innovation? Paul Sloane offers 5 practical strategies for innovating on slender means.
People are naturally apprehensive about change, especially in successful firms. But even successful companies are at risk if they stand still. Paul Sloane explains why it
What is lateral thinking and how can you utilize it to generate great ideas? Paul Sloane provides us with an informative overview.
What is it that your business really sells? What is the true value that customers get from your products or services? When you know the answers to these questions you can start to conceive new ways to provide that value. It is the starting point for real innovation, according to Paul Sloane.
Questions are the best way to gain deeper insights and develop more innovative solutions. So why do so few people utilize them, asks Paul Sloane?
Within larger organizations one of the biggest obstacles to innovation is poor internal communication. Every organization has to find ways to promote internal communication and collaboration and to fight internal division and competition. Here are some ideas from Paul Sloane for breaking down barriers to communication.
How can you build a team that is innovative, dynamic and capable of finding breakthroughs for tough problems? How can you avoid repeating dreary routines and find sparkling new ideas instead? What can you do to turn a division 2 team into Premiership winners? One way is to make sure that among your solid citizens you have a good sprinkling of rebels, according to Paul Sloane.
Every time that we approach a problem, in any walk of life, we bring to bear assumptions that limit our ability to conceive fresh solutions, warns Paul Sloane. Brilliant thinkers are always aware of assumptions and are always happy to confront them.
