Freshness of thinking is a key component of driving new ideas and innovation. Remember it is vital that we maintain competitive advantage through continuously exploring new ways of doing things. To avoid getting into a personal “rut” regularly view things from different angles.
Some thoughts on how to practice "Fresh Thinking":
- Think about things in your life or career that you believe need to change - are you getting stale?
- Write down the things you think need to change and prioritise them. Develop a plan of action that will drive change and a new approach.
- Review colleagues' performances and ask yourself - what are they doing that I should be doing?
- Simple but effective - try a new route into work, vary it every day - this will help to break established patterns and foster new thinking.
- Keep your antenna out looking for new thinking and ideas - other markets, other sectors. For example if you are in an industrial market and you want to learn about customer service - go and have a look at the Ritz Carlton Hotel Gold Standards: https://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/about/gold-standards
- If it’s not broken, don’t fix it but remember - keep one eye on today and one on tomorrow - things can sometimes become too cushy.
- Don’t allow complacency to set in - this is a danger zone - what follows complacency is poor performance.
- Speak to your mentor, role model or colleagues and gain feedback on what they think you should change.
- Innovation and differentiation are driven by fresh thinking - when we do something different we get a different outcome.
- A fresh approach can be invigorating and rewarding - it introduces new possibilities and when it is regularly practiced it delivers amazing breakthroughs in performance.
Blog written by Winning Pitch, who are a lead delivery partner for the Excelerator Consortium that manages the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme.
Details of the Programme can be found on the Accelerated Growth Programme website.