Maybe I’m an Innovator
Image by Seth1492 via Flickr
I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate…If you’re going to do something that’s never been done before–which is basically what innovation is–people are going to misunderstand it just because it’s new. — Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder & CEO
When I first read that I thought, I must be an innovator. I’m certainly misunderstood, or at least that’s how I feel many times. I love the creative process of brainstorming. In meetings I will throw out whatever comes to my mind. Not with expectations of people saying, “That’s a great idea. Let’s do it.”
It’s nice when that happens, but the ultimate goal is to find the right solution or answer, and if one of my crazy ideas stirs more ideas that end up being the right idea, we’ve succeeded. I wonder how many wrong answers have been followed through with because someone was reluctant to throw their wild idea for everyone else’s contemplation.
The flip side of that is, don’t discourage your people from brainstorming and voicing ideas. Who knows what innovation you may come up with.
Related articles
- Book Review: One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com by Richard L. Brandt (blogcritics.org)
- 5 Ways to Kill a Brainstorming Session (bjconquest.com)
- Time to Re-visit the Brainstorming Session (lenbrzozowski.wordpress.com)
from my notebook 