How to be Innovative

Start Conducting Stand-Up Meetings

When you stand up your entire energy changes, and this can affect the energy of the meeting as well. By converting a meeting to a stand up one you can watch the momentum and enthusiasm of your colleague’s soar. It will help employees be more action orientated and focused on their tasks, and will be more likely to motivate your team.

Surround Yourself with Inspiration

If you see something that gives you inspiration, then put it on display. Whether it’s a quote, a picture, a magazine, absolutely anything. The more proactive the better, if there is a blank wall available in the office try and make it into a space where you and other employees can display all your inspiration. If wall space is of a minimum, try doing it on Pinterest.

Choose a Friend

Brainstorming is one of the best ways to come up with new ideas, and it’s definitely easier coming up with ideas if there’s more than one person.  Choose someone from work that you trust who is driven and passionate, and get each other to try new things both in and out of the workplace to try and get inspiration.

Pick Small Projects

People often think that innovative ideas need to be big, but this isn’t the case. Often, it’s a lot of small ideas that add up to make a huge difference. Not only do small-scale innovative ideas happen quicker, a lot of them also happen without a lot of fuss. Try changing lots of small things and you’ll start to see a big difference.

Flip Your Assumptions

Identify all the tasks you do without thinking and take a moment to talk about how you can do them differently and more efficiently. It won’t always work, but you never know unless you try.

Bring it to Life

Stop talking and start doing. Put your thoughts into words, your words into pictures, and your pictures into prototypes. People are more likely to remember your idea if they can see it rather than just talking out it.

Ban Things

Every so often start banning things, whether this be resources, words, your primary target market, your default communication tools etc. This will force you and employees to think outside the box and do things differently. We tend to do things the same way by habit, but this will force people to get new ideas and do the same things in new and more creative ways.

Get Out of the Office

Even if you’re just taking a walk around the block, try to get outside. Take a walk and pay attention to the things around you. If you need more structure to what you’re paying attention to try looking for things beginning with a certain letter, or things in pairs. Your mind will start connecting dots between what you see, and subconsciously what you’re having problems with in the office.

Fuel Up on Creativity

Feed your mind with creativity rather than technology. Instead of checking your phone as soon as you wake up – look out the window. Pick a song to kick start your morning, it can be anything, just make sure that it inspires you!