Can we talk about innovation in L&D? When someone says innovation we immediately think of a new system, software or technology. Innovation can be defined by a new idea, method or process. We talk about the newest social media platform or the latest and greatest LMS. Typically we are taken with all the newest functionality.
Why do we think innovation has to be something big? It doesn’t. Since innovation is implementing a new idea, it doesn’t mean that it’s an idea that has never been thought of before. It means it’s an idea that you have never done before. It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be and it has to be feasible while solving a problem you have.
Look at your processes and how you do things in your departments. Are they all as successful as you would like? Are they stale and in need of updating? Are your customers getting bored with the products and information coming out of your department? Then it’s time to innovate. Take a simple example. Do you send out communications using email? Are the emails being read? Understood? Practiced and implemented? Try a new way to communicate. Maybe posters, flyers, present the information at a staff meeting by putting on a skit. What ever it is for you and your organization, try different things and innovate. Are you getting the point?
So here is your assignment. Take one of your processes, one of your tasks, take something, anything that you do on a regular basis and innovate the process. Change it up. We are in the change business but are some of the most change adverse people in business world (that’s a topic for another day). Find something that has been bugging you or maybe it’s something you don’t even think about you just do it because you’ve always done it and mix it up. Come on, it’ll be fun. Keep tweaking it until it works or until you find that the process you have is the best solution. Either way you are innovating. I am willing to bet that you will be able to improve something in your department.
Post your results below. I’d be really interested to read what you changed and the reaction you received to it. But more importantly how you felt as an innovator.
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