3 Things Innovation Has In Common With Beyonce's New Baby
Beyonce and Jay Z's new baby & innovation may seem like two very different topics, but a closer look will show you otherwise. Beyond being just an excersize in loose association (i.e., connecting seemingly unconnected things), these connections might just help you become a better innovator (as well as a celebrity child if you some how managed to become one of those).
1. Both have hard-working parents.
Whether you are after Grammy Awards or staying ahead in your business thorugh innovation, you have to work hard.
In the case of innovation, this means you have to stop what you are doing at some point every day, and you have to plan time to make what you do better. For example, you could spend half a day writing one blog post for your company, or you could take that half a day to step-back and design a system where you could crowdsource the writing of your blog to professional bloggers and to your biggest fans. Suddenly, you're getting 5 times as much work done at higher quality until BAM! Your little blog just won the pulitzer prize!
But, it is really is hard-work to not accept the status-quo. It means you have to re-invent the wheel every day you do business. But you can learn something from Beyonce here as well. Beyonce never had a hit by using the same song over and over again; with every new hit, she worked hard to innovate and find the new musical connections to her audience.
So, regarding innovation and getting ahead with your compnay, if you like it then you better put a ring on it, commit, & get to work!
2. Both have silly names (that are fun to say).
Innovation is just a silly word. Anyone can try something new and call it 'innovation', but the truth is that real innovation (somewhere down the line) has to come from a very creative place & a very smart place. Buying Netflix for your house because you didn't want to use Redbox anymore is not innovation. Outsourcing your logo design for your company is not innovation. Creating a sticker to include on Netflix CD's for people to mail in votes on their favorite design for your new movie studio...that might be innovation...Who knows...
This certainly doesn't mean you have to be a genius to innovate, but it might mean that you have to base your ideas on something of value, & it might mean that you may have to seek insight from a lot of people for that one clever idea.
For example, Nokia crowdsources the creation of mobile apps because they're taking a bet. The bet is that by going 'open', and reaching out to the crowd for ideas, they have a chance to avoid the limitation of thier own hired-staff and reach out to a lot more imagination and insight from the crowd.
If you want some more real words (& less silly ones) to use than innovation try: open-source, cross-profession insight, social forecasting, group intelligence, etc.
And back to Beyonce's baby, as an aside, if you ever read this, dear child, I'm sorry your parents named you Blue-Ivy. I'm sure they had good intentions... Just don't let it turn you into a super-villian.
3. Both are naive.
With no offense to the baby, because she is obviously, a baby. I bring up the concept of naivete because it is very important for innovation.
It's just that expertise and strong understanding can often get in the way of new ideas. In fact, many artists have pointed out that geniuses often have something in common with children, and that is the ability to view things as fresh and unique no matter how mundane or familiar they might seems to the rest of us.
However, we can all benefit from thinking a little less like ourselves and more just like a baby crawling around looking at our world (maybe exploring a mansion in Blue Ivy's case). It just takes practice.
For example, one company saw an upcoming election, but they didn't look at it as an unknown random event. They thought, what if we could peek at the results now by what people are saying on Twitter? Well, luckily for them, it worked, and that was their reward for looking at two different things (1.sharing your opinion on Twitter & 2. Elections) and saying maybe they mean the same thing...
In the same way, Blue Ivy is probably pretty certain that when Jay-Z says 'Got Your Nose!' removes his hand from her face that her nose has indeed gone missing and that her Daddy may very well have it, right there, clenched in his palm. In other words, it takes naivete sometimes to take a deeper look at something that maybe everyone else is looking over.
Don't let the missing pieces dissuade you, remember when you need to innovate, think of Beyonce's baby, and you'll be on the right path.
To learn more about innovation and especially crowdsourcing your way to innovation, please join us for Crowdopolis where we will have fortune 1,000 companies as well as crowdsourcing and innovation specialists like the Author of "Best Practices are Stupid", Stephen Shapiro.