At LO:LA we believe a ‘Brand is a promise kept’ or to put a finer point on it ‘the promise of an idea must be delivered’. It’s not enough for a business to say it’s innovative, it has too actually be innovative.
But let’s be clear, innovation isn’t easy. All too often we see announcements for new businesses that claim to be the Tesla of whatever vertical they are in, or they are the next Uber. They declare they are ‘game-changers’, ‘disruptors’ or ‘revolutionary.’ Uh, probably not. But by changing your approach to idea generation you can change the odds in your favor.
Not all ideas are created equal.
In an idea-rich culture your odds of success increase, producing ideas in an idea-rich culture means although 10 might fail, one will be genuinely disruptive and succeed.
All businesses start with an idea, the seed that sparks its beginning. But to become successful you can’t stop there, you need to be a factory of ideas, a veritable production line of thinking and asking what if!
By embracing ideas and a culture of continual idea generation we might be able to help prevent more brands from going the way of a Blockbuster or a Kodak.
Cultivating a culture of creativity requires bravery, the acceptance that not every idea is a silver bullet and being comfortable with the fact many of the ideas won’t work. Cultivating this culture also requires an openness as to where the ideas come from. Ideas don’t just materialize in the board room, they come from the shop floor, from customers, from flippant comments your kids make!
Nurture creativity
To say we are not all born creative is wrong! As kids, we come at problems without fear, without self-consciousness and a sense of joy in the act of doing. Perhaps we need to be more childish at work, as -Diane Ackerman said, “Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.”
To build a creative culture means you have to allow yourself to play without any immediate goal, you need to explore, try new things. To aid this process It’s good to have a small bunch of people around that keep their creativity honed, something that we at LO:LA would love to help you with 🙂
When we work in a diverse, collaborative and creative environment with the freedom to generate weird and unconventional ideas, that nurtures innovation and out of this perceived chaos will come the profound, incredible and truly disruptive thinking. Not every idea will make the grade, but if you apply the right amount of patience, grace and time, trust me, the ideas will come.
Photo by Gerrie van der Walt on Unsplash
Comments