Creativity, Innovation, and Execution

If this reads almost like the three Musketeers, you're not far from thinking in the right direction. Today more than ever it is necessary to look at things differently to succeed. A commitment to develop the creative side and work in collaboration with others are some of the building blocks to develop the respect of your peers and the community at large.

In my post at The Blog Herald I flesh out 5 Things You Can do Today to gain respect. Respect is a component of reputation and an ingredient of strong connections. Strong connections and respect for the environment are becoming the two main forces to fuel what's next.

Why Creativity?

Bruno Giussani just published his monthly post at Business Week online Innovation&Design. In it, he lists three challenges for creative minds. The immediate payoff? Your executable ideas may be worth some serious money. The secondary thought? He sees the rise of open, nimble and fast innovation methods over the Internet as drivers that challenge the future organizing principle for open innovation.

Back in February, I wrote a series of posts about creativity. The three-part series focused on generating ideas, building confidence while validating them, and executing.

• Where do ideas come from? They come from anywhere, the key is being in "what if" mode.
• Why didn't *you* think of that? Because you discounted the simple stuff before it had the chance to build up into something more substantial.
• How do you define ideas? Simulations and prototypes can help.

Ultimately, it's about not censoring your inner critic, going for it, and seeing the project all the way to its implementation.

Because Innovation

Is what makes average leap into great. And today we have even more tools and dynamics at our disposal to make the necessary jump. Innovation is a necessary ingredient to change and change is important to carve a new course for events, products, services, responses... you name it.

The awards Giussani lists are all potential catalysts for social change. Change can be uncomfortable, yet everyone loves a challenge, especially when the competition is broadcast as contest.

We were just talking about the revolution digital media is bringing to advertising a couple of days ago. One of the contests is to reinvent digital media for the purpose of informing and inspiring communities and improving people's lives. So a tool that is being perfected for marketing and branding purposes can also serve the community.

A few years back when I worked at a start up technology company, I learned a lot about the first steps on the Internet and the World Wide Web. What fascinated me most is that we are coming full circle on some of the original intent -- to share information on research and thought leadership for advancing knowledge and discovery. Except for now we are more than ever making it real.

Needs to Have Execution

The very nature of this medium where we can have instant feedback lends itself to iterative learning. Adaptive and iterative where the domain of software developers and company laboratories. Thanks to the abundance of free and low cost tools and the increasing traction of collaborative work, the whole Internet has become a gigantic open lab for testing ideas, tweaking and repeating.

A few weeks ago, I suggested how to build a social media strategy. If you want to tap into the knowledge, ideas and spirit of customers, partners and employees, it may be time to visit with your organization's readiness. Execution is much easier when done in teams -- there's a safety net factor as well as a validation component to it -- and selling your idea will be much easier if everyone is already vested in making it happen.

It all comes down to one thing: execution.

[A flock of doves soar against an azure sky as Pittsburgh's 15th annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure kicks off in Schenley Park. Photo by Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette]

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

Charlie -- It was the President of NetApp, Tom Mendoza, who said that the key to risk taking is in how you handle failure. That was part of a live conversation I reported here a couple of months ago. You're spot on with your point.

Karen -- I am smiling broadly at your thoughtful comment. That is indeed what happens. Although processes are created to make things smoother and get everyone on the same page, they (the processes) need to serve the people, not the other way around. As for the people part of the equation, change is easier to talk about than it is to do. I would be very interested in seeing if anyone else wants to weigh in on this one. My observation is that often what makes us successful tends to keep us locked into place where we become very good at what worked. Some of the reasons are: rewards systems and perception of status that greatly reduce the appetite for risk.

The new generation, especially millennials, are placing a lot more value on collaboration. What do they think? If anyone is reading I hope they join in ;-)

[Karen Hegmann]

Valeria

I love your comments on Creativity. Having worked for organizations in both the profit and not-for-profit sectors, I think there are two roadblocks to the implementation to great ideas: 1)People who claim they want change, but don't in the end 2) Process and rigid internal reporting systems.

Being a "creative" person (but also business-minded), I've often been in situations where I had an innovative (and realistic) solution to a business challenge, yet for some reason it fell on deaf ears. In some cases, I found out the people involved were not really risk-takers (although they claimed to be), and in others, the internal systems were so process-oriented that the idea died or became distorted before it even reached the upper echelons.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to overcome these obstacles, to be sure an idea gets implemented?

[Charlie]

Great post. I also had a problem with execution. But the moment I learn how to face failures, the problem no longer become a big concern.