Two hundred forty three years ago, on July 4, a small startup decided to declare itself as a separate entity from its successful parent company that was then considered the wealthiest in the world. In a matter of a few short years, the large parent company was declining, while the startup has ascended to be considered the most powerful in the world. Small startup = United States; large parent company = Great Britain.
History is our biggest teacher, and the US independence teaches us that no matter how small or how large, the most courageous player gets the cake.
“Innovation” doesn’t happen with the wave of a wand by an Innovation Wizard. Innovation is brought about by real people all around us. Perhaps you’re sitting next to an innovator right now–or perhaps YOU yourself are an innovator–or perhaps the author of this blog is an innovator.
Innovators are courageous. They challenge the status quo, take risks, and accept failure as a natural process for innovation (IDEO’s risk-taking philosophy is “fail soon to succeed sooner”).
You still can’t think of a courageous innovator that you know? Let me help you out by giving you a few examples of courageous innovators that I know (fictitious names, but real incidents):
Nancy-the-rookie who performed a job worth millions, or more
Nancy’s company lost a valuable client because her team produced a billable project that was ridden with errors. Nancy took it upon herself to conduct a Root Cause Analysis and spent approximately 40 hours of her own time interviewing team members and drafting a report, in which she concluded that her company could benefit from a more organized workflow in order to prevent such incidents in the future.
Nancy’s Root Cause Analysis report sparked changes at her company.
Fast-forward 2 years –> Nancy’s company has established swim lanes for all team members. Now, her company is able to produce excellent projects on predictable budgets, while keeping employees happy because the need to work nights and weekends has basically been eliminated due to the great efficiency.
Tyler-the-writer who delivered a presentation at a HUGE and FAMOUS national conference
Look around you for courageous innovators, read articles and books to become courageous yourself, and network to get fresh ideas.
If you are under pressure to deliver results and protect your margins, you should DEFINITELY be seeking out these courageous innovators, as they are the ones who bring in the trophies.
It’s time to make big strides and turn heads–let’s go.
