Having an innovative mindset allows you to recognize problems as opportunities. This December we’ve been talking about an Innovative Mindset and how it can help you be successful in the future, giving specific focus on strategic planning for the coming new year. It is also a prelude to our Innovative Mindset Couse in January that will help participants adopt this mindset by addressing their most important problem and helping them develop an action plan. If you haven’t watched last week’s video, cinematically speaking it isn’t the best, but it explains what the innovative mindset is and give you 4 steps to use when applying innovation to a problem. In this one, we talk about why it’s important.
This link will take you to the Opportunity Areas Self-Diagnostic .
Real meaningful problems, arise exist and persist. Having and maintaining an innovative mindset is important because it allows you to recognize those issues before they get out of control. I like to call these problems, opportunity areas. Anywhere you feel frustration, anxiety, any time you feel upset or angry. These are opportunities to use the steps of innovation to arrive at a solution. Try to take a step back from the situation and asses the cause of the negative feeling. Then ask questions and try to frame the problem correctly before moving forward.
This week’s challenge is in the form of a self-diagnostic to help identify areas in our business, work or life that could use a little innovation. The questions are introspective. You can think about them from several different perspectives. Put on a particular hat and answer the questions. If you want to diagnose your work or business, put on that hat. If you notice your thoughts getting off topic, try switching hats. Run this diagnostic as many times as you like. If you feel stuck and would like some help, let’s set up a time for a chat.
The PDF version of this diagnostic is available. Just send an email to ewoodworth@betterwithwe.com. I'm happy to share it. You could share it with your co-workers, employees, or family to get the conversation flowing enabling you to find Opportunity Areas together.