When is the best time to innovate?

Innovation is 24×7 .. not something that you wait “until your in the mood”
Some of the drivers that cause people/organizations to all of sudden change their view of innovation
- Competitors … they are constantly beating you to market
- Economic Trends … our old products aren’t selling – hurry up and come up with something new
- Quarterly Results … we are having a tough quarter so lets pause on any new ideas/innovations
Just as great writers set down and crank a defined number of pages per day, the great innovators define a daily idea quota
- 2 to 5 ideas per day
- Set aside a time of day (for me, its morning)
- Don’t filer when you are capturing ideas
- Combine new ideas with ones already in your idea notebook
- If you are having struggles to come up with your daily quota, use the killer questions from previous podcasts
- Try to capture the inspiration for each idea (great use of photo’s)
- Every week or two, prioritize the ideas in your notebook using the 5 key questions
If you do this EVERY day … you will …
- Improve your own creativity (exercise that creativity muscle)
- Build confidence that you can create great ideas
- Get viewed by others as having and endless supply of great ideas
- Become a key individual to your organization (key in these chaotic times)
If, as an organization, make innovation a 24×7 priority …
- Your competitors are most likely NOT doing it
- So .. you WIN if you do it right

Listener Question: Do you have a process to create ideas every day? If so, why not share your thoughts on the how and benefits you’ve seen.

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