Inspired Innovation

It’s planning season. And around here, real planning begins by imagining what is possible rather than focusing on the incremental. Earning the leading market share in your category is possible; squeaking out a couple points of growth is incremental. But achieving what is possible often requires us to do things better, smarter and differently. In other words, it requires innovation.

I was thrilled when I recently met Stephen Shapiro, author of “Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition.” What resonated with me was Steve’s view that expertise is the enemy of creativity. The theory is simple: The more familiarity you have with a particular topic, the less likely you are to create a breakthrough in innovation because your brain is pre-programmed by your knowledge and experiences to find familiar solutions. If we ask the right questions, more often than not we’ll find that smart companies in other disciplines have answered them. Some examples: