Innovation Means Trying Something New, Not Copying.

In a previous post I mentioned that my boss took a few of us on a field trip to a workplace that recently won an award for innovation but….

I can’t help feeling that we were just there to see what they did and try to emulate it back at our office.  Don’t get me wrong, I felt appreciated for a bit that he went out of his way and organised it and I was included, but it really felt like we were there to copy them.

This would be a good place to start as far as bringing a little bit of happiness back into the workplace if we could bring those ideas back, but I’m writing this to express my point of view that once someone has done that innovation, you can’t do it again and call it innovation.

Innovation comes from trying something new.    Taking a risk, failing, adjusting the idea, trying again, throwing it out, trying a new idea, and one day getting a win.  Take some fertile minds and put them in an environment that inspires them and show them that anything is possible then let them create something new.  Don’t take them home and put them to work copying someone else’s idea.  They won’t get the same appreciation the innovators did.  You’re just working them so you can keep up with the Joneses.