If you don't make an innovation culture, it will be easy to fall behind. Someone else who makes innovation a priority can come in a kick you out. For example, look at Blockbuster. They didn't want to see what Netflix saw. Netflix came in and innovated. However, since they made innovation a part of their culture, they innovated themselves. They went from a rental company that ships movies to the household streaming service you know and love today. Innovating on yourself is something that is rarely seen.

Failing Fast and often

Failure and successes are inseparable. That is essential in the name of 409, the cleaning product. The first 408 formulas sucked. 409 was a winner.

The goal here is to learn through failing. Whoever fails the most, wins. You will learn what doesn't work and different ways of doing something. That doesn't mean go and tank your company just to learn. It means to make small failures.

The goal here is to make something and get it out the door. Your phone has tons of apps. They are all great examples of this. Companies release apps that are good enough. They aren't perfect and they probably won't ever be. Yet, apps still continue to improve on themselves and get better. They wouldn't be able to get the feedback needed to shift direction or create something better than they even intended if they kept it inhouse until it was flawless.

There is a good chance you are reading this on an iPhone. Look back at the first iPhone. It sucked. It couldn't even have apps, and Apple even said it has all the apps you would ever need! They went back on that statement and made the Appstore!

How this relates to innovation

Failing fast and often helps you be more agile. You can quickly adjust to new information. This also has a big impact on the positioning of your product. If you don't adjust to your market, the market will start to use a product that did adjust.

Resisting new information is just absurd. It is human nature to be comfortable. We don't like to change. However, without it, how would you grow? How would your company grow? The need to stay comfortable overrides the ability to change. Learn to love what you hate.

Lastly, adjust as you go. Pick a direction and adjust as needed. You can adjust with the information you learn from wins and failures that bring in new information. If you fail to make a decision on a direction, you will become stagnant or fail.

Some ways we try to stay on top of our innovation is by using design thinking and sprints. They all use the same model of thinking by making. Make something, get feedback and adjust. It challenges what you know and changes what you do.

Traditional business thinking works by knowing and doing. You know something because you learned it, read it, or it is a best practice. So you do it.

If your goal is to play it safe, then you don't want to innovate.

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