Source: The Muse
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When
you read about highly successful innovators—the likes of Steve Jobs, Marissa
Mayer, or Elon Musk—it’s easy to think that they just have something that the
rest of us don’t. How can they possibly keep coming up with such great ideas
that change businesses, industries, and possibly even the world?
The
answer is, they practice.
“It’s
tempting to think of innovation as a rare skill belonging to a specific class
of people—the visionaries, the creatives, the rule-breakers,” writes Neil
Blumenthal, founder of one of the most innovative companies of 2015, Warby
Parker. “But actually, it’s a muscle that we’re all naturally equipped with. We
just need to get in the habit of using it.”
Luckily
for the rest of us, the smart tactics these visionaries use for keeping their
brains sharp and thinking differently can help improve our innovation quotient
as well. We did some digging to find out exactly how some of the world’s most
successful innovators do what they do. It might be just the spark you need to
think of your next big idea today.
1.
They Don’t Discount Their Crazy Ideas
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If
you’re anything like me, when you were a kid you were just brimming with
ideas—often quite ridiculous ones—that you truly believed you could make
happen. There were no thoughts of limitations based on age, experience level,
how the world operates, or anything else. But as adults, many of us too quickly
shoot down our ideas. It’ll never work. I don’t know how to do that. That’ll
take way too long.
The
thing is, those “crazy” ideas are where most of the world’s most successful
innovations come from. And the people who succeed in realizing these
revolutionary advancements do so because they let themselves believe that a
crazy idea could be a reality.
Take
Musk, who is now running one of the world’s most successful electric car
companies (Tesla) and most innovative aerospace manufacturing companies
(SpaceX). During an interview in 2014, he admitted, “I thought both Tesla and
SpaceX would fail at the beginning.” Yet he believed in them, so he went for
them, throwing much of his money and time into these “crazy” ventures.
Stop
discounting ideas that excite you but seem a little nuts. Jennifer Hsieh, the
VP of Insight, Strategy, and Innovation at Marriott International, shares,
“[Tom Kelley and] David Kelley’s book Creative Confidence talks about how most
of us are born creative, and, with practice, we can rediscover the ability to
generate novel ideas and the courage to test them out.”
Now
onto that courage…
2.
They Get Comfortable with Fear
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A lot
of people believe that, in order to be a leader in innovation, you have to be
fearless.
In
fact, quite the opposite is often true. “I wouldn’t say I’m fearless. In fact,
I feel fear quite strongly. But if what I’m doing is important enough then I
just override the fear,” shares Musk.
In her
book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, prolific author Elizabeth Gilbert
writes, “Creativity is a path for the brave, yes, but it is not a path for the
fearless, and it’s important to recognize that distinction…we have to be
careful how we handle our fear—because I’ve noticed that when people try to
kill off their fear, they often end up inadvertently murdering their creativity
in the process.”
In
other words, successful innovators let their fear exist, but just don’t let it
dictate their decision-making. They let themselves feel it, but they keep on
going anyway.
Because
maybe, if you’re feeling afraid, you just might be getting close to something
really good.
3.
They Learn About Anything and Everything
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This
philosophy shone through in Jobs’ revolutionary work. As CEO and biographer
Walter Isaacson writes in HBR: “He connected the humanities to the sciences,
creativity to technology, arts to engineering. There were greater technologists
(Wozniak, Gates), and certainly better designers and artists. But no one else
in our era could better firewire together poetry and processors in a way that
jolted innovation.”
In
order to make these connections, though, Jobs had to know about things—a lot of
things. That’s why the best innovators are also some of the biggest learners,
and not just about fields directly related to their work. They follow passions
and interests that might not make sense. They dive into topic areas they know
nothing about.
“I’m a
voracious ‘scanner,’” shares Hsieh. “I make time to read or scan the latest
every day—and I often get rewarded with seeds of inspiration for our brands and
business challenges.”
Blumenthal
agrees, writing: “Learning naturally leads to cross-pollination and ideation.
Ideation can lead to action. Action is how innovation comes to life.”
4.
They Never Think They Know it All
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Even
though we might think that successful people are truly the biggest experts in
their fields, the ones who stay innovative never operate under that assumption.
“I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you
could be doing things better, and questioning yourself,” shares Musk.
That’s
why Blumenthal encourages all of his employees to approach the world with a
“beginner’s mindset” and look for ways to give themselves fresh perspectives.
“Because
many of us spend a good portion of our lives working toward some form of
expertise, it can feel counterintuitive to ‘think like a beginner,’” he writes.
“If you do have expertise, there are ways to give yourself a fresh perspective:
Surround yourself with non-experts, interview first-time customers, shop your
own website. Hire whip-smart people from outside of your industry.”
Which
brings us to our last point…
5.
They Surround Themselves With Heroes
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Successful
innovators know that they can’t do it alone. The people who surround them—the
people who they collaborate with on these revolutionary ideas—are just as
critical to making them a success. Which is why they make it a priority to make
sure that collaboration happens.
During
her time at Google, Mayer shared, "We have this great internal list where
people post new ideas and everyone can go on and see them. It’s like a voting
pool where you can say how good or bad you think an idea is. Those comments
lead to new ideas."
Jobs
famously designed the buildings he worked in to make sure collaborative
encounters happened. “If a building doesn’t encourage that, you’ll lose a lot
of innovation and the magic that’s sparked by serendipity. So we designed the
building to make people get out of their offices and mingle in the central
atrium with people they might not otherwise see,” he said of his time at Pixar.
In the
spirit of creating new ideas through collaborative encounters, Marriott
International hosts “Innovation Days,” at its global corporate HR. It’s an
internal conference to bring people from across disciplines together and
provide the space to ignite new ideas.
However
it’s done, successful people surround themselves with those who inspire them.
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