Innovation doesn’t just happen by accident. It’s driven by intentional habits that anyone can cultivate, whether you’re leading a team or working as an individual contributor. Today, we’ll break down the habits that can help you spark new ideas and keep them flowing.
Innovation doesn’t just happen by accident. It’s driven by intentional habits that anyone can cultivate, whether you’re leading a team or working as an individual contributor. Today, we’ll break down the habits that can help you spark new ideas and keep them flowing.
Modern Mentor is hosted by Rachel Cooke. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hey, it’s Rachel Cooke, your Modern Mentor. I’m the founder of Lead Above Noise—a firm helping leaders activate performance and change – without the burnout. We do leader Activation bootcamps, keynotes, and Pulse checks to help build custom blueprints. Let us know what you need!
So, are you familiar with the concept of a “Growth Mindset?” It’s a term that was coined by Carol Dweck. And she defines it as the belief that one's intelligence and other personal characteristics can grow and develop through effort and experience.
Sounds a little wonky. But basically having a growth mindset means you believe you can change and grow by changing your habits. By learning and listening and experimenting with new ways.
I first learned about this concept years ago at both work and at my kids’ school. Like it was following me everywhere. Because how we lead and how we parent can absolutely impact whether we help someone develop a growth mindset or a fixed one.
What I most remember taking away as a mom is that in speaking to our kids, we wanted to focus not on who they were, but on what they did.
So for example, if my daughter aced a test, I was encouraged not to say something like “wow you’re really smart” or “what a great student you are” – and instead to say things like “I’m so proud of how hard you studied” or “I love that you went for extra help before that test.”
The focus should be on the actions – not the fundamentals of who someone is. You know – because actions ladder up to outcomes.
Often at work we strive to “be” a certain way. It’s something I hear a lot from clients around innovation – just wishing their teams could “be” more innovative. But innovation, I tell them, isn’t a singular thing. It’s an outcome of habits we need to practice and cultivate.
So today, if you’re someone striving to “be” (or lead a team that is) more innovative, then let's talk about the habits I’d love to encourage you to put on display.
1. Focus on the Problem or Opportunity, Not the Solution
In running my business, I use a lot of different technology products and solutions – to send my email newsletters, to manage my invoices, to keep my clients organized and on and on.
And as my poor husband can – and will – tell you – I get really frustrated when something doesn’t work simply or intuitively. And candidly – a lot of these products don’t. At least for me.
See I don’t love bells or whistles. I generally want to understand the simplest path to getting something done. And yet so often when I contact customer support, they want to talk me through some fancy set of steps or solutions they’ve built.
Problem is – they’ve often built something because it excited them…but it doesn’t solve my problem.
Teams and people need to be more disciplined about really sitting with a problem or opportunity before they start to build a product or solution. Innovation isn’t defined by shine or polish but by utility and purpose.
As Albert Einstein famously said “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”
Wise words, Mr. Einstein.
2. Ask Clarifying Questions Along the Way
The next thing to understand about innovators is they’re super iterative in how they work.
Like if you give them a problem to solve, they don’t go off, build a solid plan from A to Z and go implement it.
No, in my experience they ask lots of questions. Good ones. And not just at the start, but along the way.
Like one client of mine was asked to rebuild a dashboard that sales leaders use to monitor the performance of their teams.
So my client started by asking lots of questions. Around their key performance metrics, their primary means of outreach – all to ensure she understood its ultimate purpose.
As she started building it out though, she’d keep reaching out with further clarifying questions. About how the leaders like to access their data, or which points were most salient versus nice to have.
By the time she presented the final product it was nearly perfect. Not because she’s brilliant, but because she was humble and curious the whole way through.
3. Test, test, and test. And learn.
Next up is being willing to put yourself out there. But like, safely. In contained spaces.
I have some clients I work with once. Or once a year. And others whose teams I meet with quarterly or monthly. And in these latter groups, I get to know them pretty well. And vice versa.
I’m always challenging myself to develop new techniques in designing and facilitating programs and offsites. And it’s often with these groups I get to know well that I do my experimenting.
To be clear, I’m never casual or careless. I won’t bring in something new to test without careful consideration. But also, I can’t swear something will be a homerun unless I get to test it out. With the right people in the right moments.
When we set the stage, we manage expectations, and we actively solicit feedback, there’s little we won't have permission to test.
With the right clients, I’ve discovered new ways of co-creating, of uncovering insights, of creating alignment and trust through exercises they allowed me to play with – and they helped guide me to the right approach.
So where can you find a spot to experiment with a new idea? And what might you have the chance to learn?
4. Consume widely
When I’m working through a problem I go heavy on learning. I listen to pods, read articles, talk to experts. And often it’s not long before I hit a wall. Before everything starts to sound repetitive. And I’m still without a solution.
So something I challenge myself to do is to move beyond the literal and into the metaphorical. Because I can’t believe how often I find the insight I need in a space that’s entirely off base.
Like I’ll take a critical leadership lesson from a podcast about dog training. I’ll discover a new facilitation technique in an article about a space launch.
Sometimes your brain needs the freedom to wander a bit. Tell it what you want it to learn, but then let it roam somewhere fresh and off the beaten path. I’d be willing to bet you’ll surprise yourself.
So there you have my top habits when it comes to cultivating innovation. When you focus on the problem, you ask great questions, you test and learn, and you let your mind wander, then innovation will be the thing to find you.
But I’d love to hear from you. What habits help you be your most innovative? Hit me with an email at rachel@leadabovenoise. And let me know!
Join me next week for another great episode. Until then, visit my website at leadabovenoise.com if your workplace could use an Activation boost—whether it’s a bootcamp, a keynote, or a Pulse check, you choose. You can follow Modern Mentor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Thanks so much for listening and have a successful week.
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