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 antennae 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 website – best practice in service, take a look:
http://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.
