Inspiring Innovation: A 5 Minute Challenge

Inspiring innovation seems more like an art than any kind of skill or science. The sudden spark that results in an exciting new idea seems random – like it came out of the blue. Studies have shown what seems random was actually inspired by something your did, read or saw in the past.

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Inspiring Innovation

Therefore, the way to more innovation is to do, read and see more. Providing input to your senses as a form of fuel to your innovation effort. Fuel alone won’t get your there. A car with a full fuel tank will set there without a spark of some kind. In an automobile, that spark comes from the engine.

In innovation, that spark comes from an opportunity or problem you are facing once its revealed. So how do you go about inspiring innovation?

Revealing an Innovation Opportunity

The better innovation opportunities like to hide. Given that others have not found them yet reveals how good they are at hiding. Do you want to be a world class innovator? Then you will need to dig and search broader and deeper to discover innovations others aren’t willing to put in the effort to discover.

Innovation Map

To find these innovations, you need a map that will give you’re the areas to search. A map that will give you a competitive advantage by guiding you to areas to search that others are ignoring or choosing to overlook.

For me, the map I use are a never-ending list of questions that I ask myself to force my brain to look beyond the obvious and see opportunities with fresh eyes.

The better the questions, the better the ideas.

Inspiring Innovations Through Stories

It is more than just the questions. It’s the stories of companies who faced and answered the questions that I find inspiring. We have all heard the well-known struggles and inspiring stories of innovations that changed the world. So has everyone else. To discover game-changing innovations that others have not yet found, you need inspirations from non-obvious questions and the companies and individuals that inspired them.

Rather than you searching for them, we are going to do it for you.

New Show: 5 Minutes To New Ideas

Today, we are announcing a new show — a 5 minute short-form podcast of inspiring stores of how others discovered innovations that changed them and their organizations along with the questions that inspired them. While we hope the stories are entertaining, our objective is to challenge you with questions proven to inspire ideas that result in groundbreaking innovations

5 Minutes To New Ideas is a short-form podcast designed for innovators with a short attention span. Why a short-form show? While innovation gains visibility and support within leading organizations, time is the one resource we never have enough of. Rather than falling behind on long form podcast that you will never get to, a 5 minutes show is something that anyone can find the time to listen to.

How can you be inspired to create great innovations in only 5 minutes per week?

Each Monday morning, take 5 minutes and listen to that week’s show. Challenge yourself to create a specific number of new ideas (idea quota) by Friday. Don’t do it alone. Challenge others to join you by having them to listen to show on Monday and then combine your collective ideas for even more impact.

Now what? Each Friday, take the list of ideas and rank them. Take the best ideas and do something with them. Pitch them to your boss, post them on an internal system for others to improve on or start a new company to launch your best ideas.

As I’ve said many times before – ideas without execution is a hobby and I’m not in the hobby business.

Innovators Community

Need someplace to post and share your ideas?

Join the private slack community for innovators over at TheInnovators.Community. If you want to keep your ideas private, we’ll even create a private channel so that you and your team can work on the weekly challenges outside of prying eyes.

Can I Ask A Favor?

If you like the new show, could you share it with other?

The best way to get the word out on a new show is by word-of-mouth. And the best word-of-mouth is yours.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the new show. You can post your comments below, over at the 5 Minutes To New Ideas show page over at tonewideas.com  and over on the To New Ideas Facebook Page.