Is your organization more innovative because of COVID-19?

Are you asking what has innovation got to do with COVID-19?

COVID – 19 has forced us to be more innovative. That meaning that we can’t do ‘business’ the way we’ve always done business. Let me give you some answers from a Harvard Business Review article by David Burkus. In the article it spoke about how most organizations try to increase their innovation efforts from the assumption that ‘we need more ideas’. Then they get into throwing the usual words of ‘blue sky thinking’ and ‘thinking outside the box’. These organizations may even take the time to come up with new ideas, but sadly they have trouble noticing or recognizing these ideas as being unique or innovative.

Now some of you are thinking that would never happen to me and our organization.

If you are thinking that, I am not sure if you are aware of these examples;

• Kodak invented the first digital camera in 1975, but didn’t recognize the potential and the possibilities of what they had invested. Then Sony developed a different prototype and took control over digital photography. Where is Kodak now?
• Xerox developed the first personal computer, but ‘penny-pinched’ when it came to technology. It was Apple and Steve Jobs that grabbed the opportunity, and the rest is history.

Why am I telling you this?

COVID-19 has forced all of us to look differently at our ourselves, our organizations, and the way we do our work.

And yes, it is over a year since we heard about COVID, and many people and organizations continue to hug onto the security blanket of thinking that all is going to be well, once we get the vaccine. I beg to differ!

I feel very fortunate that a few years ago I took a course on ‘Innovation Engineering’ from an organization called Eureka Ranch. I type fortunate, but the course was intensive, and it challenged me to look at my views and opinions as to how things should be in a very new light. Namely, that being able to identify how big an innovation is and how important it is if you want to;

• Know if a change in how you work is worth doing.
• Know if a company is worth working for.
• Know if you should invest in a company.
• Know if a cause is worth volunteering for, and
• Growing your ability to get a new or better job.

You might be thinking that not all of those points make any difference to you or your business. And that is true, if you think it. And it is also true that without innovation you will have not productive imagination. This is because;

• Innovation = positive change.
• Innovation = ideas for working smarter.
• Innovation = making a difference.

I am here to tell you that if your are ignoring innovation, you are ignoring the possibilities of what your organization can be.

You are also saying to the world; we don’t need to change. You are acting much in the same way Kodak and Xerox did all those years ago.

If you are interested in becoming more innovative, give me a call at 519-539-2267. It is only in making the time to call that you can find out what the possibilities are.

Are you going to call today?