As a parent, I am beyond excited that my son’s ELA teacher has such as innovative mindset. And as an innovation professional, I simply ate this story up. This is because borrowing concepts from one discipline and applying them to another happens to be a key component of innovation. This sort of repurposing can also be applied to any strategic endeavor.
The value derived from looking beyond traditional (yet, artificial) boundaries to help reimagine what we already do is immeasurable. There are a few key components to instilling this kind of paradigm shift in our own mindset, and that of our team’s. Let’s break it down:
- First, find a team that looks nothing like yours. Go say hi. Everyone has contacts outside of their own discipline who are really good at what they do. Have the courage to lean on them and learn from them to unearth and dissect the factors that most contribute to the core of what they do, why they exist, and how they function. The deeper you look, the more you’ll be able to observe each component of their process, learn what those components are intended to achieve, and understand what drives that area’s success.
- Then, borrow their scissors. Take what you’ve learned and share it with your team. What is most relevant to you? How can you apply their processes or components to what you do? Think creatively and apply ideas strategically; the answers may not be obvious at first glance but look again. By using the other team’s scissors, you might be able to carve out your team’s masterpiece. Just like cutting in a straight line helps with reading, applying others’ processes in new and unique ways helps drive innovation.
- Keep creating anywhere and everywhere. Look for more groups. Learn from them. Borrow their scissors. Copy and repeat. There are great things happening across organizations every day, and the processes, components, or functions can contribute to successes in other areas of the business. Take the initiative to seek them out and get ready to build a gallery for all your works of art.
As the head of Selective’s Innovation and Strategy team, I see first-hand the many different approaches people take to innovation. For example, one of our upcoming design thinking sessions will focus on how we can take a successful capability used in a call center environment and leverage it in other unique ways throughout a diverse set of functions within operations. Likewise, all across our communities, businesses are re-imagining and re-purposing their business models and physical structures to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic implications. Every one of us is capable of thinking of different and better ways to stretch what we already do – and one way to start is by bringing the Art teacher to the table. Because taking something very specific and proven in one place, and trying it out somewhere else, can be the critical step to bringing our masterpieces to life.