How To Be Innovative – Day 24 – Break Free From The Gravitational Pull Of The Core Business

The core business will always have a sort of gravitational effect whereby it pulls all the business areas around it towards itself. In general, you want the business revolving around the core however the idea of innovation is to break free from what came before to further push the business into the future and grow.
So the question is how do you break free from the core business and not let it pull you into the “that’s how we’ve always done it” way of thinking?Below are a few critical elements:

• Firstly, it is important to have people that are not simply “yes men/women”. If you’ve never heard of the term, a yes man (or woman) is someone who always says yes to everything a superior may say/ask. For example, saying a project is a good idea even if you don’t think it is. Yes men are only useful for basic and mundane tasks, they can never help innovate and grow. What you need are men and women who will say no if it makes sense to, and who aren’t afraid to hurt feelings – if it means the team goes in the right direction for progress.
• Second, you need senior leadership that actively push innovation and do not allow innovation to be slowed simply to conform to the core business.
• Third, you need to make sure that you can work outside of the pull of the core, so that your projects and ideas are not tainted by core activities. In essence, this could be thought of like a safe space for innovation.
• Finally, try to borrow certain systems from the core, rather than having to completely start from scratch. For example, using a finance system that the core business uses to save time or maybe a similar planning system to the core business (provided that it makes sense).