GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

You can increase your success in business if you can become an ideas carrier, someone who identifies, collects and communicates fresh ideas for other people’s business challenges. If you work in an office you can do this for your colleagues, your boss or the people who report to you. If you are a consultant or sales person you can do this for your customers. If you are a buyer you can do it for your suppliers. In every case you can build your relationship by helping the other person solve their problems.

Let’s say you are a salesman. Think of your most important customers. What are their most pressing business challenges? What are the top priorities and the worries that keep them awake at night? Forget for the moment about trying to sell them your products, focus instead on their problems and issues. Now as you go about the rest of your business look out for ideas that might help. Maybe when you are speaking to a colleague or another customer, or when you are reading a magazine or the internet you will see something that might possible be helpful. Send your customer an email with the link or a letter with the magazine clipping and a note saying, ‘I was thinking of the issue we discussed and saw this idea that I thought might help.’ Your customer may adopt or reject the idea for all sorts of reasons but the very act of making the suggestion serves some valuable purposes. First it reminds him about you. Secondly it shows that you are interested in solving his problems and not just in selling your products. Thirdly it gives you a good reason for a follow-up telephone call, ‘Was the idea useful?’ Similar considerations apply if you supply an idea for a manager in another department of the company. It raises your profile and shows you are a constructive, helpful kind of person. These are the sorts of considerations that can help your image and career.

To become an ideas carrier you need three things:

1. An interest in the challenges that other people face. You can find out about these with intelligent, sensitive questions. Most people are happy to open up about the business issues they face.
2. An open, inquiring mind. You need to be on the look out for new ways to do things and fresh ideas.
3. The willingness to offer the ideas, put them into context and communicate them in a positive manner.

You can build your success in business with a combination of three things. Firstly your understanding of the needs of the key people you meet. Secondly your industry knowledge and contacts with other people. Thirdly your imagination and ability to spot connections. You can construct your own unique selling proposition with this combination. By carrying innovative ideas from one place to another you can help your customers, build your relationships and advance your career.

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

In the early 1980s, if you wanted to take out motor insurance in the UK then you went to a high street insurance broker who took down all your details on various forms and sent them off to insurance companies to get quotes. The insurance broker insisted that it took all his skill and experience to eventually get you a good policy. Then Peter Wood came along and took a different view. He bypassed the insurance brokers altogether. His company, Direct Line, used computer databases with up-to-date information and banks of telephone operators to quote competitive prices immediately over the phone. It rewrote the rules of the industry and Direct Line grew into the largest UK motor insurance company.

What Peter Wood did was to take telephone and database technologies – neither of which were particularly new at the time – and apply them in an innovative way in order to find a new and better way of reaching and serving the customer. Applying new (or nearly new) technologies to traditional business is a classic way of innovating in a marketplace and of going around competitors’ defences. Amazon did a similar thing when they used the Internet to bypass the traditional book-retailing channel in order to sell first books then CDs and other merchandise direct to users everywhere.

In 2004, Vodafone’s Kenyan affiliate, Safaricom, was awarded matched funding by the UK’s Department for International Development to develop services for extending the provision of micro-finance to the poor in East Africa. The result has been M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer system that enables people to transfer funds without using a bank account. It has been enormously successful. Pesa is the Swahili word for money and M-Pesa is mobile money. There are now over 12 million users of M-Pesa in Kenya alone. M-Pesa represents a significant threat to banks because it offers a more convenient service. What Vodafone has done is to rewrite the rules of the banking game by using a new technology, mobile telephony, to bypass the banking network.

What existing technology could be used to bypass the distribution network in your business? How could you use technologies in creative new ways to add value for your customers or to find a more convenient ways to reach them?

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

In the late 19th century people living in rural America had to go into town to their local store to buy the goods they needed. The selection was poor and the items were expensive. A young railway company agent, Richard Sears, decided to try a new approach. Together with a watchmaker, Alvah Roebuck, he set up a mail order catalogue – initially offering watches and jewellery but expanding over the years to include a vast array of goods. They used the railroad and post office networks to deliver goods. The catalogues were novel, exciting and appealing to clients. Sears Roebuck became the world’s largest retailer.

In 1886 David McConnel found a new way to sell cosmetics. His sales agent, Mrs P.F.E. Albee, was the first Avon Lady. Using a network of women sales agents to sell directly to women in their homes, Avon grew rapidly. By 1928 Avon had 25,000 representatives. Avon has continued to grow and to empower women. It has more women in management positions (some 85%) than any other Fortune 500 company. It is estimated that 90% of American women have at some time bought something from Avon.

In 1959 two High School friends, Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos, founded a company called Amway, an abbreviation for ‘American Way.’ They developed an innovative sales approach based on multi-level marketing networks. They sold a concept of owning your own business to people who sold their products and they convinced people to convince their friends of the benefits of the business model. It grew exponentially. The products were incidental; the network sold the model of the network. It is now a multi-billion dollar corporation with over 3 million business owners operating in 80 countries.

In the early 1990s Microsoft dominated the PC software market with their desktop packages sold through distributors, dealers and retail outlets. Anyone trying to sell a new software package faced huge barriers to entry. A little company called Netscape found a way to bypass the traditional channels by offering their browser product, Navigator, as a free download on the internet. They charged for professional and developer versions. At the time it was a revolutionary way to distribute software. Netscape became leaders in the browser market.

We tend to think of innovation in terms of new products and services but new routes to market can be far more effective means to gain competitive advantage. There is a new way to reach the customers you serve today and the customers you want to reach tomorrow. Spend some time focusing on this issue, brainstorm new routes to reach clients and new ways to sell. It could be the best innovation investment you make.

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

I often use improv theater techniques in my workshops on creativity and innovation. They are little plays in which people have to spontaneously handle unexpected situations in front of an audience. Usually delegates approach these challenges with some caution but after a little training and practice they find them entertaining and liberating. The methods can be amusing icebreakers. But they also serve a deeper and more rewarding purpose – they challenge our assumptions about the unexpected.

Throughout life we learn to treat the unexpected with care. This might be based on something deep within our primitive ancestry. In ancient times something that was unknown or unusual might have been dangerous so the safest option was to view it with caution. Our natural instinct is to repel the outsider, to reject unorthodoxy and to repulse unexpected ideas. Improv challenges all of this. It teaches us to welcome the unknown and to turn it to our advantage. In an improv theater exercise we learn not to reject or question a crazy notion that is thrown at us but to take it on board, go with the idea, build on it and pass it on.

For example, say you are in a two-man improv interview. The other person may start with a random statement such as, ‘I see your pet gorilla is causing trouble again.’ You could close down the conversation by replying,’ No it isn’t.’ Or, ‘I don’t have a gorilla.’ However you quickly learn that is better to take the idea and build on it by saying something like,’ I know, he drinks too much cider.’ Or, ‘I warned him not to join the Milwall supporters club.’ These kinds of responses give your partner something new and useful to build on. The conversation can then go into all kinds of bizarre and amusing directions.

Some people misunderstand improv. They have seen some programs on TV where clever comedians use improv to deliver terrific witticisms. It seems that improv is all about being funny. But it is not. Improv is about being spontaneous. It is about being imaginative. It is about taking the unexpected and then doing something unexpected with it. Very often this leads to humor and hilarious situations. But they are by-products. The key thing is being open to crazy ideas and building on them. And funnily enough this is exactly what is needed if we are going to make our enterprises more creative and more agile.

Stodgy, conventional organizations have an atmosphere that instinctively rejects anything counter-cultural. Radical ideas are robustly opposed. People fall into what de Bono calls the intelligence trap; the smarter you are the easier it is to find fault with new ideas. Improv helps expose and rebut this approach.

Truly innovative organizations develop a culture where anybody can challenge anything. New ideas are welcomed. Crazy ideas are not rejected – they are used as starting points for ‘What if?’ discussions that lead to radical new concepts. If you want to change the culture in your business to support rather than reject creativity then improv is a good place to start.

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

How can you keep up to date with the latest trends and directions in your industry? There are so many sources of potential information that you can be overwhelmed. You should certainly watch, listen and learn from the following:

1. Your customers

2. Your frontline staff (sales, marketing and customer service in particular)

3. Your competitors

4. Your trade magazines, shows and websites

5. There are also some generic trend watching sites that are worth browsing. Check out the following and see which are most useful in your sector:

• Fuld – Business and Competitive Intelligence
• Outward Insights – Competitive Intelligence
• PSFK – Trends and creative ideas in popular, consumer and business culture
• Springwise – Entrepreneurial ideas from around the world
• Science of the Time – A network of futurists and trend watchers
• Trendhunter – Trends and cutting edge ideas
• Trendwatching – Scans the world for emerging consumer trends

The future is already here. You have to be receptive to weak signals to find it. These sites might help. You do not have time to read them all but you cannot afford to be unaware of key trends that affect your business so you have to be selective. Good trend hunting!

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

We Should Develop Our Skills at Divergent and Convergent Thinking

by Paul Sloane

We are creatures of habit. Each day we wake up on same side of the bed. We put on the same type of clothes we wore the previous day, we eat the same type of breakfast, we sit in the same car and we take the same route to work or school. When we get there we think in the same way as we thought the previous day. Most of our thinking is in the same groove – it is analytical, convergent, critical, left-brain thinking. This is our normal mode of operation and it is hard to appreciate just how severely we hamper ourselves by restricting our thinking in this way. There are many other ways of thinking and of expressing our thoughts.

We express our thinking in words. It seems so natural to say things, to use words, to write routine memos, emails and reports that we rarely stop to ask if there is a better way to do things. But a mathematician expresses himself with equations, an accountant with numbers, an artist with pictures, a composer with music, an architect with drawings, an engineer with models, a movie director with moving images, a public speaker with oratory and stories. Why do we so rarely borrow any of their forms of expression?

In How to be a Brilliant Thinker we explore different kinds of thinking and other approaches to some of the mental challenges we face. Let’s start with convergent and divergent thinking. Convergent thinking is our normal state. When we hear a suggestion our instincts are to examine it, criticize it and analyze its consequences with particular emphasis on what might be wrong with it. We are trained at school and university to summarize, scrutinize and evaluate the works of authors, historians, and scientists. It is easy and natural for us to focus in on a notion and examine it critically from various viewpoints. We bring our own assumptions and mind-set to bear and put the new idea into the framework of the world as we see it.

Divergent thinking, on the other hand, involves moving away from the core subject in a spread of directions. When we use divergent thinking we can generate all sorts of ideas that are not obviously connected with the original challenge or concept. We stretch the boundaries and let our imagination generate many different possibilities – including wild or unsound ideas. It is the counterpoint to convergent thinking where we focus sharply on one target and narrow down our options to arrive at a chosen solution.

Furthermore we have a very disturbing tendency to only see and gather evidence that supports only our existing beliefs and to reject or ignore evidence that conflicts with our beliefs. We have a set of beliefs and assumptions and we look for evidence that bolsters this mind-set. If we believe that all squirrels are gray then every time we see a gray squirrel it reinforces our conviction. But seeing another gray squirrel is a very poor test of the rule. What we should do is look to see if we can find a single squirrel that is not gray. That would disprove the rule and move our knowledge forward. The first reports that black swans had been seen in Australia were disbelieved in Europe – the evidence did not conform to the conventional view of the world so it was discounted.

Brilliant thinkers recognize that there are many different views of the world and that each is incomplete. Our current mind set frames how we view the world but we must be ready to admit that it is just one of many views; it may be a good system but it is partial and needs to be refreshed with new information. Sir Isaac Newton redefined our understanding of the world with his laws of gravity and motion. It was an excellent model and served Science well for centuries until Albert Einstein updated it with his general theory of relativity. His view of the universe is constantly being examined and revised as new theories develop.

Einstein said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Divergent thinking allows us to use our imagination to explore all sorts of new possibilities. Convergent thinking allows us to use our knowledge to examine concepts and see where they fit. Unfortunately our natural tendency is to reject ideas if they are not aligned with our existing knowledge and belief systems. Divergent thinking involves considering all sorts of points of view – including the unconventional, the unfashionable, the ridiculous and the outlandish. It is an essential skill which goes unpracticed for many. There are times when we need the precision of convergent thinking and there are times when it is overly restrictive. The two main phases of a brainstorm meeting are good examples of how both methods can be employed in harmony. After the challenge has been defined, the group adopts a divergent thinking mode and generates a plethora of ideas. These will include many silly and unworkable notions but these are useful as stimulants to provoke further ideas. When a good list has been assembled the facilitator of the brainstorm will encourage the group to start using convergent thinking in order to evaluate the ideas and to select the best. It is vital that the two modes of thinking are used separately in each phase. If we mix convergent thinking with divergent thinking at the beginning then ideas are evaluated and criticized as soon as they emerge and the creative fountain will probably be extinguished.

The conventional thinker is normally stuck in convergent thinking mode but the brilliant thinker can use both these modes. There are times when we need to be analytical, calculating, critical and judgmental but if we use this approach too often then we become limited, constrained and even destructive in our thinking. We need to consider many possibilities, approach problems from different points of view, come at the problem laterally (literally from the side) if we are to be brilliant thinkers.

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

Draw on the Expertise of Someone Who Works in a Completely Different Field

by Paul Sloane

If you are planning a creative thinking session around a particular topic then one way to help displace your thinking and inspire ideas is to bring in an expert from an entirely unrelated business.

A company had an issue with its sales force. Morale was low and team spirit was poor. Sales people complained about poor leads and poor commissions but the company directors were sure the real problems lay with the motivation and drive of the sales team. So they planned a creative thinking session and put together a team to tackle this problem. They started the meeting with a talk from an outside expert – a Major who had served many years in the Army and knew how the Armed Services recruited, trained and motivated its staff. How did they instill courage, team spirit, discipline and drive? It certainly was not through bonuses and commissions. The Major presented and the team members asked him questions. Later in the meeting they were able to adapt many of the Major’s ideas into workable improvements of their own. They improved leadership, training and recognition (even giving a form of medal for most sales calls in a month) and transformed the performance of the team.

Say you are concerned about human resource issues then consider getting a completely different point of view by bringing in an external speaker such as:

• A bishop
• The head teacher of a school
• A hospital manager
• The director of a charity
• A zoo-keeper
• An army officer
• The manager of a large hotel

Say you want to improve creativity, design or innovation you might start your meeting with a talk from:

• A movie director
• An interior designer
• A web site designer
• An ad agency creative director
• A chef

Leaders in other walks of life have faced similar problems to yours but in very different circumstances. See if you can find people to share their experiences with you. Their different views on life can be enlightening and will help displace you from your comfort zone and kick start your creativity.

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

Very few people can claim that they have achieved all that they are capable of. In the Western world most of us do moderately well. We get an education and a succession of jobs; we have some relationships that work; we are well fed; we avoid penury and destitution. We can take comfort in modest achievements. But for many people there is a nagging feeling that they could have done much, much more with their lives and careers. They know that their talents went undeveloped. So what is that is stopping you right now from making a much greater contribution to society? What is it that is preventing you from fulfilling your potential?

1. You do not have enough belief in yourself. All successful people have enormous self-belief. They know that they have something special to contribute and they are determined to make their mark. This does not mean that they are arrogant, narcissistic or complacent. On the contrary, they are self critical and push themselves hard because they know that they can achieve more. What is it that is special about you? What is the talent that you have not developed? What do you know you are capable of?

2. You do not measure yourself against written goals. It is hard to make progress if you have no clear goals for your life. Most of us muddle along from one thing to the next. Successful people define their objectives and measure progress against them. You should set yourself targets in the areas that are important to you e.g. career, wealth, health, relationships and social life. There are many books giving detailed advice on goal setting and they reinforce the point that the most important thing is to write your goals down and track progress. If you do not achieve some of the goals then reset them. You can be flexible and adjust how you move forward but you must keep moving. Do you have written objectives that you track regularly?

3. You are too comfortable where you are. It is easy and natural to settle into a rut. Why try something new when you are already doing what you are good at? High achievers go further. They take risks. They move out of their comfort zones. They take on difficult challenges. They push themselves to acquire new skills and to face new examinations of their abilities. This means that they run the risk of failure. Where are you right now – inside your comfort zone or taking risks?

4. You are lazy. Thinking and planning are great but it is action that leads to success. It is only by doing things that you change the world. If you have clear goals but are not making progress towards them then look at your activity level. If you are a writer are you writing enough? If you are a salesman are you selling enough? If you are a leader are you leading enough? Great sportsmen and musicians practice for hours each day. Picasso painted over 20,000 pictures. Persistence pays dividends. How high is your work rate?

5. You work on low value activities. To succeed you need to focus on the important and strategic goals – not just the urgent day-to-day stuff that consumes so much of your time. How much of what you are doing is advancing you towards your key objectives? Try to eliminate the low value activities that absorb your energies and release time for the really important things.

6. You are not mixing with enough high achievers. Let’s face it – your friends and family are really nice people but they are not challenging you to achieve more. Spend more time with high flyers and positive thinkers who understand ambition and achievement. Share some of your thoughts, dreams and challenges with them. They will encourage you and give you the direct advice you need. How much time are you spending with really successful people?

The person who can motivate you, change you and get the most out of you is in the mirror. Build your self-belief. Set yourself clear goals and measure progress against them. Push yourself outside your comfort zone. Take on some difficult challenges even though you risk failure. Significantly increase your work rate. Focus on high value actions. Mix with top achievers. Ask yourself this – do you want a safe, comfortable existence or do you want a life where you achieve something really worthwhile?

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

If you want innovation then think about these two words – pain and slack. They can lead you to innovation success.

Wherever there is a pain there is a need for innovation. So if you are looking to create new products or services look for the pain points. Study your customers and their everyday activities. Where do they have difficulties in using the product or services that you and your competitors provide? What inconveniences them? What costs them time and effort? What slows them down? What is awkward or clumsy?

People have been taking their pet dogs for a walk for as long as the dog has been man’s best friend. In all that time people threw sticks or balls for their dogs to chase and retrieve. It seems a simple process with no pain point. Then some product designer noticed that it was awkward for people who did not throw well. Also there was the inconvenience of picking up a muddy ball. So the ball thrower was invented. It is a flexible piece of rubber that allows you to grasp a ball in the device and then to easily flick it a fair distance. Now when you go for a walk in the park you see many people using their ball thrower to amuse and distract their dog. Find the pain point and you have the starting point for an innovation that people need.

If you want your team to be creative and to turn creative ideas into prototypes then you have to cut them some slack. People who are working flat out all day on their normal work cannot find the time or energy to experiment with promising ideas but that is exactly what is needed for innovation to happen. You do not get innovation for free. You have to allocate time, people and money. You should allocate some time for your staff for the following activities; thinking about problems, well-facilitated brainstorm meetings, research , experimentation, prototyping and testing. 3M were leaders in this area with their famous precept that any engineer or scientist could spend 15% of his or her time on any research topic they wanted. They did not need to get their manager’s permission to pursue an interest but they did need to keep their manager informed. Google go further with their renowned allowance of 20% of time for all employees to explore any business topic that interests them. You do not have to be equally generous – a smaller amount of time can pay dividends. Give your people some clear challenges that need creative thinking and then give them some slack time to tackle these problems. You will be surprised at the results.

Increase your innovation capability by focusing on pain and creating some slack.

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GUEST POST from Paul Sloane

I heard this story from creative thinking expert Jurgen Wolff. Steve Loranger, CEO of ITT Industries, shared this technique with Business 2.0: ”If you’re working on an important contract, a ‘must-win’ program, give your team a much shorter deadline than actually exists. Afterward you tell your team, ‘I just got a phone call from the buyer today and he told us that we lost – he didn’t tell us why.’ You ask them why they think you lost. You’ll be amazed at how they come up with things that they hadn’t thought about before…as soon as you capture what your team is guessing, you use those points to rework your proposal.”

You might consider this idea to be somewhat underhand but it does seem to be very lateral and it might be highly effective in improving your bid. It works on the basis that after a failure we can critically and constructively examine what went wrong. You can adapt this idea and apply it to any project even if you’re working on it on your own. Imagine the project is done and released to the target audience. Now imagine that this group or person turns it down. Why might that happen? What features might he or she want that aren’t there? Make notes of the ideas that occur to you and use them to strengthen your project. Anticipate all the ways in which you could fail and then mitigate or eliminate them.

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