Innovation vs. Repetitionstring(25) "Innovation vs. Repetition"

October 18, 2021
, Innovation, Referral Institute 4

If you consider the concept of repetition – doing things the same way for long periods of time for the sake of simplicity and the feeling that repetition is an important part of being successful, where does innovation fit in?

If we are always doing the same thing over and over again, where does creativity come in and how do we get better at what we do?

Businesses need innovation as well as repetition for success. Innovation has to be done with a plan, and it has to be planned innovation. That seems counterintuitive, but you can’t just innovate willy-nilly and expect positive results.

I think the biggest mistake that most businesses make is they don’t do the repetition. Timed repetition is one of the reasons why the organization I founded in 1985, BNI®, is as successful as it is. It is meeting each week, doing that weekly presentation, having a speaker at the meeting, passing referrals every single week. These are all things that are repetitive and create a foundation for success. 

Boredom Is Not a Reason to Change

What often happens with businesspeople is they just want to change stuff because they get bored. Boredom is not a reason to change. Boredom is not a reason to completely change up everything you are doing. You can make a change in an element of what you are doing, but I would urge businesspeople — do six things 1000 times, not 1000 things six times. 

I recommend that you innovate by trial and error. Try something new in a small test area, then do it on a somewhat bigger scale, then try it in one whole segment of your market. Then, only when you have had those successes do you roll it out company wide.

Innovation takes place through trial and error, not haphazardly. That is a way to incorporate innovation into the structure that already exists. 

Don’t just make changes because change for change’s sake is NOT innovation. Innovation comes through testing and experimentation, trial and error. Change things with a plan and a system and a process to measure results. That is the key. That is the way that you do innovation, not just to change things up and make them different; it is purposeful.

The most successful businesses are the ones that understand that you have to find a system and then follow it consistently. If you want to establish creativity in that system, that’s okay, just do it within the structure and the confines of the system.

I believe in innovation, and I believe in timed repetition and consistency. Then you integrate innovation into that consistency for continued business success.

Roof Technique

The Cat’s on the Roof Techniquestring(33) "The Cat’s on the Roof Technique"

April 23, 2020
, , Storytelling 9

I was talking to someone recently that had to announce something new to his team that he felt would be “perceived” as bad.  However, he also felt confident that it would lead to some great things afterward.  He was concerned about the initial perception and anticipated pushback.  He believed that this would keep the team from moving forward to implement the changes.  I listened to his ideas and I agreed. There would be pushback AND it was the smart move.  So, I told him to use the Cat’s on the Roof technique.  He asked me what that was, so I shared this story with him:

The Cat’s on the Roof Technique

There were two brothers and one was going to take a vacation.  So, the brother says to the other brother “can you look after my cat while I’m on vacation?” And the other brother says, “sure no problem.” A week later the brother comes back from vacation and says “how’s the cat?” And the other brother says “oh, sorry man, the cat’s dead.” The brother says “what?!” The other brother says, “yeah sorry, the cat died.”  Then the brother says, “are you kidding me, man, you don’t just spring that on somebody!” The other brother says “how should I have done it?”  The brother said, “I don’t know, prepare me a little, tell me ‘the cat was on the roof, and you walked out and saw it, it started sliding, you ran over to get it but you didn’t make it in time.  You then took the cat to the vet to try to save it and then after that – you can say “I’m really sorry but your cat passed away.  That’s the way you prepare somebody.” The other brother says, “got it, I understand now.”

Then the first brother changes the subject and asks, “How’s mom?” The other brother says “well, mom was on the roof.”

Change for innovation

People hate surprises they perceive to be negative.  Change has elements of surprise to it.  Even when people say they want to change they often don’t react well.  When the change happens, they will often say something like, “yea I wanted to change but I didn’t think it would look like that!”   Change scares people, even when it’s change that can lead to something better.

I have found the “Cat’s on the Roof Technique” is an excellent method you can use to transition people over time to something new.  Don’t just spring change on people if you can avoid it.  Do it with a lot of communication, gradually, over time.

 

Disruption

Lead the Disruption or Become Disruptedstring(39) "Lead the Disruption or Become Disrupted"

June 10, 2019
, Business, Innovation 3

In my lifetime there have been many companies that have been crushed by disruption. The irony is that they could have actually led the disruption. The fact that they were crushed by other companies was because they chose not to lead. They chose to either ignore it or fear it. And leading with fear is a bad strategy. These three businesses are prime examples of what not to do.

Sears

Sears was once America’s largest retailer. They began as a mail order catalog company using the postal service to deliver virtually anything, to anyone, almost anywhere, and it dominated its competition for many, many decades.  Sears was Amazon more than 100 years before Amazon.

In its day, Sears was the 800-pound gorilla that could, and did, decimate smaller retailers.  Unfortunately, Sears was so entrenched in their brick and mortar stores that when the world-wide web was introduced in 1991, they did not have the foresight to lead the way and make the transition.

In fact, just the opposite happened.  Their reaction was to actually shut down their catalog two years later in 1993.  Amazon.com was founded the very next year in 1994.

Kodak

A friend of mine who retired from Kodak many years ago told me that he felt there were few corporate blunders as staggering as Kodak’s decision to ignore the digital camera market. This is especially true since Kodak invented the digital camera in 1973, and it went on to be issued a patent for digital cameras in 1978.

Why, then, would the company that invented the digital camera not pursue this incredible opportunity? The answer, to them, was obvious. They did not want to interfere with their highly lucrative film processing business, and they did not believe that people would be interested in looking at photos on a computer. Wrong on both counts.

Blockbuster

When the winds of change swept through the video industry, Blockbuster was more of a brick than a weather vane.

In 2000, Netflix approached Blockbuster with a request for Blockbuster to buy them out for roughly $50 million dollars. Blockbuster turned them down more than once.

Jim Keyes, the CEO of Blockbuster said in 2008: “Neither Redbox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition.” By the time Blockbuster saw the success of the new Netflix model, they made several attempts to copy it.  However, they were too late.

Today, Blockbuster is bankrupt, and Netflix is worth over $100 billion.

I hate change. I really do.

People like the comfort and contentment that comes with a successful status quo. The problem is that a successful status quo is the present, built upon a strong past. Unfortunately, the present is not etched in stone for the future. Whether I like it or not — the future involves change, and the change is, by nature, disruptive.

Social scientists refer to this as the “threshold model of collective behavior.” For decades I have called this “concept recognition model.” When I was young, people didn’t think they needed answering machines — until enough people thought they did, and then they were everywhere, used by virtually everyone.  Later, people didn’t see the need, nor the value, for fax machines. Until enough people did — and then everyone had one.

In the 90’s I met many people that had no intention of ever using email.  Now, I can count on one hand the number of people I know who don’t have an email address — and they are all over 70.

Before people adopt a new concept, early adopters embrace the new process or equipment.  Later the resistant population joins in, and, under the right conditions, there is a viral cascade of change. Changing the world is always disruptive.

The only thing I hate more than change is failure.

Failure is what happens when you’re left in the dust when the change crushes our “present.” Today, more than ever, we need to choose to change before we are forced to change. By the time a business is forced to change, it is probably too late.

In today’s changing world, we will either manage the status quo which will eventually result in failure, or we can lead the disruption which is likely to lead to the reinvention of our business, and potentially the industry as a whole. So you must decide: be disrupted, or be the disruption.  I vote to be the disruption.

The Book of Doing and Beingstring(27) "The Book of Doing and Being"

July 30, 2015
, , , Author, Business, Creativity, Emotional Intelligence, Innovation, Recommendation, Self Development, Video Blog 1

In this video, filmed during a recent TLC (Transformational Leadership Council) Conference, I talk to my good friend, award-winning motion picture producer and writer Barnet Bain, about his newly-released book, The Book of Doing and Being.

In the video, Barnet talks about how creativity has a significant place in our businesses and our relationships, but that the ‘really big game’ is in innovation.  He says, “Innovation is to creativity what e-mail is to snail mail.”  Watch the video now to find out how innovative thinking is available to absolutely all of us, despite the fact that very few of us are trained to see the world in terms of innovative responses as opposed to creative responses.

Barnet has devoted his life and career to manifesting his creativity in a way that not only gives his life purpose but brings meaning and hope to the lives of others.  With this book, he reveals to us how we can do the very same thing.  Put simply, if you want your life to count in ways you’ve previously only dreamed of, you owe it to yourself to read The Book of Doing and Being.

So what do you think of Barnet’s ideas in the video?  If you’ve already read the book, what are your thoughts on it?  Please leave your comments in the forum below.  Thanks!

 

Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity’string(41) "Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity’"

May 19, 2011
, , , , , , Author, Business, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Enterprise, Global Business, Guest Blog 6

My friend Frank DeRaffele Jr., whom is also one of the co-authors of my upcoming book Business Networking and Sex, shared with me a great article he recently wrote called “Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity'” and I’d like to share it with all of you who read this blog.

Frank makes some very interesting points about the importance of balancing creativity and innovation in regard to small business and I think small business owners and entrepreneurs everywhere will benefit from reading this article.  Since the article is quite lengthy, I’m going to divide it into a few different guest blogs so, if you like what you read in the remainder of this blog entry, be sure to stay tuned for the follow up guest blogs featuring Frank’s article.

“Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity'” by Frank J. DeRaffele Jr.

As Small Business Entrepreneurs (SBEs), one of our greatest strengths is our creativity.  Coming up with new ideas . . . ALL THE TIME.  However, one of our greatest weaknesses is our creativity.  Coming up with new ideas . . . ALL THE TIME.  For most of us, we have too many ideas, too often.  Oh, the paradox!  We tend to like the new idea, the new concept, the new Ah-ha!  The problem with this creativity and these great ideas is that we tend to be great out of the gate but lose power on the follow through.  I am not saying that we should not be creative.  I am not saying that creativity is a bad thing.  I AM saying that creativity can be a time stealer, distraction, justification, and crutch.

Ninja vs. Samurai

Most of us SBEs love the freedom that we have to come up with new ideas and then implement them as quickly or as slowly as we like.  We love the fact that if and when we get bored with this new idea or we feel it is not panning out as we hoped, we can just drop it and move on.  After all, we have no one to answer to.  “I can do what I want, when I want to, and no one can tell me otherwise” we think to ourselves.  This is true.  Very true.  In fact, TOO TRUE.  This freedom we have ends up becoming our Profitability Ninja.  This Ninja disguises himself as strength and confidence, happiness and joy.  Yet, behind his mask is the true assassin.  The Ninja who will kill our profits.  He begins to steal our profits and we don’t notice it.  We may not notice it for weeks, months, or years.  We mostly don’t notice it because either he is too close to us or we just refuse to see him.

This Ninja steals by keeping us focused on new projects that really haven’t been well thought out.  Investing time, energy, man hours, relationships, and money, with little to no return.  This is when the Dark Ninja turns into the Red Ninja.  We are metaphorically bleeding.  We are now going from profitability to loss (Black Ink to Red Ink).

So how do we save ourselves from this Ninja?  Enter the Samurai of Innovation . . .

Come back next week to read more of Frank’s article and learn about the “Samurai of Innovation.” In the meantime, if you have any comments to share about this first article installment, please feel free to share them here.