Blog Post

Image by Aline Berry from Pixabay

Vision can be defined as ‘A mental image of a possible and desirable future state of the organization’

Vision is the future picture and sets the scene for the purpose and strategy of the organization. A vision should be credible and realistic, setting an attractive future point for the organization. Something that is better than the current state.

One of the reasons a strategic vision can be developed is to create desirable challenge for managers within the organization. A combination of challenges along with a credible, realistic future vision, that the people within the organization ‘buy in to’ can influence innovative processes as they may be the only way to achieve such a vision.

Mission statements are personal to each organization and usually consider the nature of the business i.e. what business are we in? What business should we be in? They are usually defined from a customer perspective i.e. what the business does for the customer. They reflect the values and beliefs of an organization, and where possible the goal of the organization’s competitive advantage… “To be the leader in the field of…” They are connected with the defined purpose of the organization and are communicated to all stakeholders both inside and outside the organization. They define where the company is headed and what the company stands for.

Mission statements can directly influence a company’s culture (This is the way we do things around here). Company culture can influence attitudes to risk and change both of which can have a direct effect on the innovativeness of an organization.

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

Constant innovation is a necessity in our modern world. Why? Because products and services are always getting copied and it’s difficult to stop people and organizations from doing so. Of course, you can trademark brand names, logos, etc. However, many products and services can be very difficult to protect with a patent. Small changes to the components that make up the product or small changes to the processes that collectively represent the service ultimately can result in a product or service which is a copy but not from a legal perspective.

So your only real way to stay ahead of the game is by a process of constant innovation. Constantly coming up with new ideas and implementing them keeps your customers engaged and your competitors behind you in the business race.

Don’t Get Too Complacent

The trick is to not get too complacent. Experiment and test the market. Just because a particular product or service has performed well doesn’t necessarily mean that it will stay like that in years to come.
Get the most knowledgeable people of that product or service together in one room and get them to brainstorm on ways that the product could be improved or simply revamped. Sometimes a simple change in packaging can give a product a completely new lease of life.

Engage Your Customers

Reach out to your customers, either one-on-one or via focus groups. Get their feedback on the pluses and minuses of your product or service. Ask them where they think it could be improved. Also, ask them why they use your product or service. This can be quite enlightening as occasionally you may find that your customers use your offerings for something other than what it was originally meant for. Could this open new markets for you?

Work With Your Best People

Get together with your best people and analyze the feedback you get back. Anything that makes sense to change? If so act on in now. I need to reemphasize this though… Don’t just change for change’s sake – make sure it fully makes sense to do so? Is it going to improve your brand, product or service? If so, then put a team in place to make it happen. That’s constant innovation.

Consumers are demanding more and more choice, quality and variety. Stay ahead of the game by keeping up with this demand.

Often we are so set in our daily routine that our subconscious mind does all of the work for us.

Tomorrow, try to do some things differently…

Try changing your route to work or school in order to wake your mind up.

Wear an item of clothing that you haven’t worn in a long time.

Have something different for breakfast.

If you eat out for lunch then try somewhere new to eat.

New, novel and different experiences get\’s your mind thinking and makes you more receptive to new ideas.

Image by Ulrike Mai from Pixabay

To fail means that you have experimented with something and the conclusion was not quite as you had hoped for or expected. However, simply by trying you have learned new knowledge in terms of what doesn\’t work.

Thomas Edison had thousands of experiments that could have been said to have been failures. Edison didn\’t see them as failures though, he saw them as new knowledge as to what won\’t work. He was quoted as saying \”I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that will not work.\”

Failure is learning and new knowledge, which in turn increase your likelihood of finding a creative solution to your problem domain.

Catchball is a Japanese idea improvement and enhancement method that also encourages buy-in amongst its participants.

As a starting point, this method requires someone to already have an idea e.g. a new product, process improvement, enhancement or strategic vision for the future. Then just like a game of catch-ball the idea is “thrown” around the room to each of the participants.

As a participant “catches” an idea then they are challenged to try and improve or expand on the idea. They might add a new feature to the idea or remove something that they feel doesn\’t add value. Once that person has finished explaining her improvements then the idea is “thrown” to the next person who attempts to improve the idea yet further. Over time the intended goal is that all of these gradual improvements will lead to some project that all feel is really worth pursuing.

This technique encourages buy-in as all of the participants can gain a sense of shared ownership for the creation of the idea.

It works well when a particular policy, strategy or company objective is defined by a company’s leaders. Instead of the leaders dictating the objective it is thrown to employees in lower levels of the organizations who then get the opportunity to refine, review and discuss it before throwing it back to the organization\’s leaders.

This process of tossing an idea back and forth ultimately enables the creation of a better, more accepted solution.

The method helps with the following:

Gaining management buy-in and commitment to the team\’s ideas
Enabling all to have the opportunity to provide input
Early identification of problems
Communication
Providing a mechanism for all workers to initiate improvements
Better understanding by all concerned
Quicker implementation
Engagement

The technique supposedly expands upon the Socratic method of dialogue which was first expressed by Plato.

The candle problem is closely related to thinking outside of the box.

The test was created by psychologist Karl Duncker in the 1930’s and was developed to determine how the function of an item biases our thought processes.

The participant is provided with a table placed up against a wall, a candle, and a book of matches and a box of wall tacks (drawing pins / thumb pins). Using these items the participant is then asked to secure the candle to the wall, light it and ensure that none of the wax drops on to the table below.

Of some of the many but failed solutions that people try are tacking the actual candle to the wall, or melting part of the candle to use as a form of adhesive to stick the candle to the wall.

The actual solution is to use the tacks box as a candle holder. The box can be tacked to the wall and then the candle can be placed in the box. The box secures the candle to the wall and prevents the wax from dripping on to the table.

The solution to this problem requires the participant to think out of the box i.e. to think beyond how we limit an entity due to our knowledge of its purpose.

When this same problem was given to young children they were much more successful at finding the solution to the problem than adults. This is due to children showing few signs of functional fixedness. Adults think in terms of this is a box where a child would think this could be a box. Young children have less experience with the use of various objects.

The lesson we can all take from this is that to be more creative one should try and see the world without preconceptions. Try to think like a child e.g. what other purposes could an object be used for other than the purpose it was originally designed to do.

Go To Thinking Outside The Box

Go From Candle Problem To The Home Page

A recent innovation is that of a camera that can see around corners. This idea has been developed by British scientists and is thought to be of great use to the military. It will enable reconnaissance without giving away cover.

It’s also thought that it could be beneficial if fitted to cars to help detect obstacles before they come into view.

Similar Principle as a Periscope

It works on the same principle as a periscope however instead of the light reflecting off of a mirrored surface it uses a wall or a floor instead.

It takes the technology of a periscope pictured above a step further…(Photo Credit: Arturo Jacoby)

Technology Recreates Image

The camera works by using short high-intensity bursts of laser light directed at a target object. Tiny pieces of this light are scattered back on to an extremely sensitive detector within the camera.

Because such surfaces are often not effective reflectors the light comes back to the detector in a scattered form. The camera records this scattered light at 15 billion frames per second. This is quick enough to detect small differences in the times at which individual photons arrive back at the camera.

The camera creates its picture by firing its laser 4,000 times a second. The lasers are fired at many different angles. The resulting data is then translated using computer algorithms so that the shape of the object being taken around the corner can be reconstructed.

A prototype was being created during early 2014 and it is expected that the prototype would be able to recognize letters of the alphabet when tested.

Reference: UK, Times Newspaper 1st July 2014

Research has proven that children are more creative than adults. This has something to do with the brain wave patterns of a child but also to do with them not having learnt perceptions of how something ought to be.

They don’t think about what has happened in the past, they live for the moment and think about now. Rules do not exist, which often results in fresh, creative solutions.

Kids ask lots of questions; I think we have all
experienced the multiple “Why?” questions from a pre-school child. But kids also are always experimenting so that they can learn things for themselves. In a way they all act like scientists.

Thomas Edison was quoted saying “The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child.”

So to conclude… Try and bring the child in you back out, ask questions, experiment, break down preconceived perceptions and form new relationships between things.

Audio visual innovations are now commonplace in our everyday lives. They are used in city centers and other public locations to advertise products, retail stores to gain our attention or promote products and sports bars to entertain us.

Flat Screen Technology

Flat-screen technology is enabling such products to be installed in more and more places and we are becoming so accustomed to their presence that we are often taking in their messages subconsciously.

Live moving images combined with sound provide a greater impact on the observer than does a static image with text and are therefore used extensively by organizations to demonstrate how products are used or to provide additional information on available services.

3D Stereoscopy

Audio visual technology is continuing to advance with 3D stereoscopy (the most widely accepted capture method) displays now becoming readily available.

Stereoscopy enables the capture of multiple views to be collected by having two cameras mounted side by side and separated the same distance apart as the distance between a persons pupils.

One downside of this 3D technology is that the viewer is required to wear specially designed eyeglasses in order to view in 3D and is, therefore, limiting from a marketing to the general public perspective.

A 3D lenticular technology exists that doesn’t require the viewer to wear glasses but this technology is currently expensive.

Audio Visual Innovations Are Re-Inventing Communicating

Audio visual-based innovations are re-inventing communicating for businesses. It’s no longer necessary or cost-effective to get on a plane for a face to face meeting. In fact, audio, visual communications, and collaboration technologies are becoming necessary components of today’s business environment.

Such technologies are no longer restricted to the executive boardrooms either. They are now becoming commonplace as teaching aids in training rooms, they are used as a means of digital signage in reception areas and are used in large auditoriums.

Dramatic advances in audio visual technologies and the fact that they are converging with internet protocols have changed the way individuals in businesses interact. We can share and build presentations on the fly, over vast geographic distances. We can both push and pull data in an instant. The advantages and benefits of these new innovations are undeniable.

Selecting an Audio Visual Company

When choosing a supplier for your audio visual needs you need to ensure that their technical expertise includes… ergonomics, aesthetics, acoustics, practicality and appropriate design to fit into the workplace environment.

Go To Types Of Innovation

Go From Audio Visual Innovations To The Home Page

Explore a question, problem or thought by asking \”What if…?” Try thinking of unusual or unnatural answers to your \”what if\” questions.

Are your answers really unworkable/ridiculous or could there be some value there?

Don\’t stop there, try some experiments to prove/disprove your ideas.