Innovations
Yesterday I attended a leadership development session put on by my employer. Sharp holds these sessions 3 times per year for supervisors and above. At every session we have a guest speaker to motivate and/or reinforce one of the principles that Sharp stands for. Charles "Chic" Thompson was the guest speaker.
Chic spoke on innovation - finding ways to creatively turn a negative into a positive, and to tap into our creative side to problem solve. We always receive "homework" after these sessions. We have to complete a project to help "hardwire" the new ideas presented into our day to day work. I should have been taking notes for that, however, I found myself jotting down ideas to apply to LIT and also to the upcoming Leadership Summit.
These were my take aways that got me thinking about Journey:
1. Things to engage the left or creative side of my brain - wear my watch on the other wrist, use my computer mouse with the other hand (I already do this for carpal tunnel reasons), listen to a new radio station, flip through a magazine you would never subscribe to - backwards, and drive to work a completely different way.
2. If you need to write a vision statement - engage the creative side by putting together a collage of pictures from magazines, then write the statement after studying the pictures. Could this help LIT create their statements?
3. If you need to "sell" and idea - always have your "elevator talk" ready. This is essentially a commercial about yourself and your passions - you never know who you may encounter in an elevator! Use the 4 word Hollywood pitch - Minute Clinic's slogan is "Your sick, we're quick". Or if I said what movie do you think of if I said "Flashdance with a guy"? (Dirty Dancing) By just using 4 words you get a point across quickly and efficiently. But to do so takes creativity.
4. Think in opposites - the great reversal. Ask yourself "what would I never do?" then flip that "never" into a really cool idea.
It was this last point that really got me thinking about the Summit and LIT. Chic was talking about things you should start doing and things you should stop doing. His slide was an example of a room with 4 large post-its (one on each wall) you or your team was to brainstorm things to do, things to stop doing, things you would never do, and things you are doing right now. I thought this would be an interesting way to set up our conference rooms for those teams who gather together after the sessions to talk about what they got out of the sessions. It might also be useful in brainstorming new ways to take our teams to a higher level.
Another example he used was of an entrepreneur that started a company called Cereality, "Where it's Saturday morning every day". This is a cereal bar where for about $3.99 you can have any type of cereal you want for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Here is someone thinking out of the (cereal) box, because someone told him it would "never" work. It's now franchising across the country.
My favorite exercise yesterday was when everyone was asked to brainstorm with the people at your table to create a new road-side experience by combining AAA and Nascar. We were told that when you brainstorm do not think about how much it's going to cost to make the idea work - restrictions like that stifle creativity. Ideas that were tossed around were: paint the tow trucks like Nascars; besides repairing the problem you were called for (flat tie) do a few extras just like a pit crew - add gas, clean the windshield; stay in constant communication with the stranded motorist similar to the way the crewchief talks to the driver.
Our all day session ended with something I "never" thought my employer would do - we enjoyed a cocktail reception! It was Sharp's thank you and congratulations for receiving the Baldridge Award.
Basically, being innovative is all about the experience you create.
Yes, besides working on this post, I did start on my "homework" and used some of these ideas to brainstorm ways to improve our patients' experience at the doctor's office.
Posted in: on Thursday, May 22, 2008 at at 7:38 PM
Wow, sounds like you had a wonderful experience. I love some of the team exercises you shared and I'm going to see if I can incorporate the "Things to do/Stop doing, What would you do/Never do exercise into our upcoming department team building session.