Who doesn’t want to be the expert? It means you know all the answers, earns you respect, moves you up the organization chart, increases your demand and makes you more money.
It doesn’t necessarily make you a good innovator, though.
In fact, an expert’s very identity is based on knowing the answers. Experts draw upon their years of experience. They seek out and promote best practices. They use their creativity to adapt and improve within the existing paradigm. They reduce risk and minimize change.
Experts are extremely valuable—until an innovative competitor creates a new product or service, making yours obsolete.
So how do innovators do it? An innovator’s mantra is don’t let what you already know get in the way of what is possible. Innovators aren’t ruled by the rules. Assumptions can’t masquerade as fact. Innovators look at the status quo with fresh eyes, imagine an ideal new reality and create a plan to get there. They accept some risk in order to change the game.
Here are a couple of exercises to engage your innovative thinking:
- Ask, what would you love to see happen for your business if there were no obstacles in your way? What would your clients or customers love to see happen with your business if there were no obstacles in your way?
- Once you know where you could go, try looking at your work through fresh eyes. Journal about every detail of your product or service as if you are an alien. Take photos like you’re a tourist. Collect materials like you are an anthropologist. Use your fresh eyes observations to bubble up new insights that might drive innovation.
- Brainstorm everything you “know” about as many aspects of your business as you can. What has to happen for you to be successful? What do your customers expect from you? What processes are required? Who are your allies and who is your competition?
- Then ask, if this weren’t true, then what could we do?
But then, I’m no expert. What ideas do you have for driving innovation?
A Marketplace of Ideas 
Dan,
Very insightful as always. Far too many individuals and companies consider themselves innovative, yet fail to consistently deliver something to market that either challenges the status quo and/or is truly transformative. Certainly S. Jobs is the textbook example of one who changes the game and upends industries. Just curious…who would make your top 5 list of leaders that embody innovative thinking/practices?
Dan K.
Jobs is certainly a good example of someone who “thought differently.” Your question about a top 5 list of leaders that embody innovation is a great one—probably worthy of a book. My first thoughts, however, go to scientists like da Vinci who applied his creativity in so many different areas, Einstein, who dreamed up the most implausible theories and then set out to prove them (“How do I work? I grope.) and Edison, who used his many failures as the foundational learning for his successes. More recent and maybe more random thoughts go to Richard Branson who seemed to get into the music and airline business as an outsider, and Billy Bean, who as General Manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team began using, with great success, computer geeks rather than baseball experts to make roster decisions. The book Moneyball, by Michael Lewis reveals Billy Beans approach and is as much about creativity and changing the game as it is about baseball.
Not a definitive list by any means. I would like to hear from you and others about this. In fact, I might post your question on one of my LinkedIn group’s discussion threads to see what comes back. Thanks, Dan.
Great examples, Dan. There is something magic about those people who imagine something new and can then scale their ideas into something that captures the imagination of a whole legion of loyalists. I’m all for more magic.
Thanks for reading the posts. I look forward to further conversation.
First let me say I am pleased to see non-contemporaries on your list. All three historic figures are great examples of innovative thinkers. I’d have to agree with including Branson, and would add Herb Kelleher on my list as well, both for his unconventional thinking as it related to the logistics of running an airline, to the corporate culture he created of valuing employees over customers. The two co-founders at Google get my vote too. Allowing their employees “20% time” has generated some great ideas (Google Labs). As a self-proclaimed cinephile, what list of mine would be complete without someone from the film industry? After considering many worthy choices, I’ve decided to go with James Cameron. From Alien, to the Abyss, to T:2, Titanic and Avator, here’s someone who creates a vision of how he wants to tell his story visually, then creates the technology that doesn’t exist at the time to bring that vision to life.
Keep up the posts, Dan. I’ve enjoyed reading them, and look forward to contributing to additional topics.