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Want More Unique Ideas That Will Get You Successful Market Results?

As a CEO or a growth leader in a competitive industry, you know innovation is everything. Differentiation is critical. Finding unmet consumer needs is a challenge. You’ve worked hard getting the consumer insight, hiring people and establishing processes to set your company up for success. You thought you did everything you needed to do. However, noticing your competitors were racing ahead, you looked outside the organization for some truly amazing talent. Long drawn-out interviews, long and detailed onboarding…just to get your edge back. unique ideas But after all this hard work, you can feel it.  You still don’t have it. And truthfully…you know the core problem. You need some innovative, edgy ideas. The ideas coming out of your team are anything but stellar. In fact, they are lukewarm. They are similar to the competition’s ideas and they are sluggish in getting to the marketplace. They are certainly NOT innovative. You know with the rate of change in technology and the market, soon you’ll be too far behind. You’ll be stuck in the cycle all over again of restructuring, creating specific teams, and spending more money to find and hire the best people. If you even have energy left. It’s not your fault, CEOs and HR managers are trained to look outside for the ideas and help they need, when often their real issues with why they lack ideas lie within. So, let me show you three ridiculously simple ways to turn it all around.
unique ideas

1. How to Find the Rebel Voices in Your Company unique ideas

In your business it’s crucial to have a continuous pipeline of unique, unconventional ideas that can be developed and brought to market. You may feel that you have hired the best talent with the right expertise… So then, where are the innovative ideas that are so desperately needed? One unfortunate statistic is that only 36% of employees feel empowered to perform their best work. Less than half of your company! Those who feel their voice is heard at work are nearly five-times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. Could it be that the innovative ideas were there all along, but the individual and team voices weren’t heard? You need a plan in place to empower those employee voices to develop the game changing ideas freely. Imagine that your team can be comfortable and transparent with each other and each member can be an outstanding contributor. As a consultant, I’ve seen many transformations with individuals and teams. Take one client I worked with – Michael. His company was in a very competitive market. His primary focus was on creating that winning idea that would make his company the market leader. He had tried various innovation processes with the team. The team had generated ideas which, at the time, seemed logical and solid. He was stressed because the business model just never seemed to work. The ideas were lukewarm, fizzled and went back on the shelf. Michael was frustrated because it didn’t feel like his team was motivated. After reviewing their recent innovations together, Michael realized there was an opportunity to shift the focus and dig deeper. The team needed to come up with a solution they were passionate about. Each person on the team brought their own varied professional expertise to the discussion. They also had a deep set of experience outside of work that we could tap into. All together this was a gold mine of perspectives to look at! Adversity would pop up, it always does, and the team needed ideas they could passionately champion. They needed to be invested in success. Once he established this one simple criteria with them, the ideas started to come out slowly. They were different, unique and the team was uncomfortable sharing them for fear of Michael’s reaction. But this time Michael was different. As long as they were behind their ideas 110%, they had a chance. The ideas the team created were like a shot of adrenaline for Michael. With the increased energy that comes with empowerment and passion, Michael’s team had an idea in 6 months with an exciting business proposition. It launched into the market and has successfully hit its year 1 goals! This was the first new launch in 5 years. Now he could begin to see an ROI for all that work. unique ideas Empowering the team to create unique ideas and solutions they were passionate about was the key.

2. Simple, Streamlined Processes Get You Results Faster

Unconventional ideas are the key to bringing your company success. If you don’t have these ideas, your only way to compete is on price. And who wants to compete on price? However, it’s easy to take that game-changing idea, that nugget of greatness, and bring it to market through a tried-and-true organizational process. It’s proven, reliable and even comfortable. The organization can operate efficiently because they know what to do. What it’s not …flexible to unique and diverse products, solutions and services. What you send through it needs to fit the mold. Innovation needs a test – fail – learn – improve approach and it needs to be fast. This iterative cycle is critical for success and your offerings may need to go through it multiple times. The standard process just doesn’t seem to work for innovative ideas. When Mary and I met, she had done just this. Her company had spent a lot of time and energy putting together a fantastic team. They had diverse experiences and ways to approach problems. They were leveraging each other experiences as a team. But…..she was considering disbanding the team altogether. She was disappointed and frustrated that this team hadn’t delivered on her expectations. Mary wasn’t the only one frustrated. Her team felt stalled and stifled by leadership who had unrealistic expectations for brand new ideas. We quickly discovered that the team’s ideas weren’t the problem. Mary’s company had an established process for bringing improvement ideas and reinventions to the market. She was confident the process she used for her bigger established initiatives was the path to success for the newer innovative ideas. After all it was a proven and successful process. Each time the team had a great, unique and innovative idea the internal process hurdles and expectations weren’t able to be met. The ideas stalled before they even got started! Bogged down in process and complicated approvals the innovations didn’t stand a chance. What was essential for an established product in the market, turned out to be an obstacle for something new and potentially game changing. Using the established processes left them getting in their own way. Mary and the leadership team realized they needed to modify their process and criteria for growth & innovation. Within our very first meeting, it became clear to Mary where the problem was and exactly why she needed a separate process. She went to work on creating it and within less than three months everything changed. They saw phenomenal results! The team became quicker at development and implementation. Leadership became better at giving feedback and recommendations, knowing what was expected of them. After not one single idea advancing in 2.5 years, Mary was overjoyed when two innovative ideas advanced in 12 months! Just those 2 ideas had the potential of a Y1 ROI of 20 million. In her business, Y1 expectations were always for a loss! A separate process for innovation along with clear expectations made it possible to get ideas from concept to reality quickly. unique ideas
unique ideas

3. Up the Transparency to Share a Unified Visionunique ideas

Even with innovative ideas and a smooth process…sometimes friction arises when the teams across your company are not on the same page.

Silos form within functions and across teams. Communication doesn’t move across the silos.
Everyone feels their part of the company knows best. Resources become restricted and communication comes to a screeching halt.

Competition within the company kills collaboration!

Highly functioning innovation groups tend to form their own culture in one small pocket of your organization. That hyper-focus separates them from the rest of your company. Friction develops across the company when these ideas get closer to commercialization. Often when the ‘different’ process collides with the ‘established’ process. Not everyone understands the value the innovation team brings. The base business feels steamrolled and conflicts arise.

No one is on the same page.

A unified vision for the entire company that is shared transparently is required.

This was the situation when James and I began working together.

As CEO, he was spending a significant portion of his time dealing with friction within his company. The different teams weren’t communicating with each other. Success required
seamless transitions. He felt like he lost control because the teams didn’t seem to be leading and really owning their own efforts, much less communicating with each other. He thought he was communicating clearly but was getting more and more frustrated.

James had been providing expectations to the innovation group and the
established groups separately. He thought he was providing focus and
eliminating barriers. Instead, it was creating friction between different parts of the organization. He needed to be more transparent with his organization and unify the vision for
his company.

We worked together to unify the vision he had for the company and create
common messages. He also increased his transparency with his organization. The more open he was, the more trust increased throughout. It also allowed every employee to see the value of their individual efforts and collective team contribution.

This was an uncomfortable transition for James. Once he began to see the
benefits and was able to spend less of his time managing friction and more time
guiding the vision of the business, he was fully supportive.

Within just a year, James achieved the growth goals he set out for the
organization – increased customer base by 30%, successful test market a new
product, and implementation of a successful new service arm of the business.

After only 2 years, he had eager buyers who were having valuable conversations
about purchase of one of the business units. Before, he had a hard time getting
anyone to take a look.

Not long after the interest conversations started, he successfully sold this unit for
2x what he previously thought possible!

Transparently communicating the vision meant that his company fully realized its
value and so did the market.

Follow Proven Strategies to Reach Greater Success

Unique, unconventional ideas can be generated, developed and become exceptionally successful in the market.

However, if you overlook steps along the way, it can be hazardous to your success.

Use proven strategies and organizational systems and watch your innovative ideas come to life.

Are you looking for ways to get your team’s innovative ideas to market?

Download my Top 10 Success Strategies

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