Leanne Froese
Innovation is loosely defined as a new method, idea or product, or some sort of change or breakthrough, so it's interesting to reflect and think about what it is that makes things innovative as it relates to the work we do with our clients.
I truly believe innovation starts with keeping an open mind. If you have an idea, or if you're at the point where you're sharing ideas at a brainstorming session with your team or within a client stakeholder team, do not stifle or criticize any ideas; allow them to flow.
Allow yourself to daydream, and if you're trying to stimulate ideas and innovation within the company, think to yourself and ask others to think along the lines of "Wouldn’t it be cool if…." If you start voicing your ‘blue sky’ goals, rewards and dreams, you'll find that your mind opens and ideas may start to flow. At the very least, the dreams that you want to accomplish begin to emerge and then you need to start to think about the creative ways to get there.
So now you have an idea, but what do you do to make it a reality? What would be an innovative or a different way of doing something?
One of my favorite thoughts to share with clients is that the difference between having a good idea and making a good idea to come to life is action. Otherwise it is just that; a good idea. Well, even the actioning of ideas can be innovative. Another way to stimulate creative thoughts is to think of them in practical terms. What is the problem you need to solve? Will it make life better? If you can do something new, or do an activity that solves issues and improves life, then that is a real innovation.
Question everything. Question your processes. Question procedures. Look for a new or better way to do things. Look for new partnerships and mergers. Collaborating with other minds or referencing what other companies are doing can lead to beautiful new initiatives.
Also - and many people will love this - try being frugal, or think: 'How can we save the most money?' Sometimes out of necessity we are forced to come up with creative solutions.
With new solutions and ways to do things in mind, it's important to note that innovation is synonymous with change. With innovation there will always be things that change, that are different than the status quo. Not everyone is comfortable with this, but that’s OK. Be willing to take risks, to try something you've never tried before.
To take risks and try something uncharted takes a lot of courage, and sometimes requires an expenditure that may not produce a guaranteed return. Be willing to fail. Become strong enough to know that if you make a mistake it’s all right, because a mistake or failure can present a wonderful learning opportunity. When we learn, surprising innovation can emerge. If you get uncomfortable that's a good thing, because taking risks should by definition take you outside your comfort zone. This is where growth, innovation and action happens.
So you have outside-the-norm thinking that has led to a change. When it comes to implementing something that's innovative, new, or different, it can sometimes be a challenge to implement in a structured company. Communication becomes very important because fundamentally people are change resistant; we are lazy and we don't like to do new things, and we like to stay where we are comfortable. It’s called being human, so we need to make sure that we have buy-in from all stakeholders and employees when innovation and change occur. Even projects that make things better, easier or more efficient need to have communication and buy-in from people. To do this, we must be as detailed as we can be with our core teams and communicate the benefits of any new innovation or project and share the basics on what the change outcome is expected to be from doing something in a brand new way.
In summary, to innovate, you need to keep your mind open, be willing to take risks and try something new, and then clearly communicate and manage the implementation of the change.
INNOVATION IN ACTION
Some examples of how innovation can come into play in communications and branding are a couple examples of how we have innovated at Town Hall.
For our media relations and communication team, we looked at the way communication has changed over the last decade or so, and how we could innovate our communication style. The broadcast model of outreach is no longer with us, so now we look at ways to try to reach people on a one-on-one basis. This is challenging and expensive as it takes a lot more time to reach out to people one by one. So we've tried to create an advocacy program where we ask people to reach out to each other with our messages. In comes word-of-mouth and social media. On all of our communication material we include our social feeds, and we feature what we call ‘suggested tweets’ to try to encourage dialogue of the messages we want people to share for us on Twitter. We're asking questions on our social channels such as Facebook and Instagram in order to encourage dialogue. These are some real examples of how we have innovated our styles from a communication standpoint.
From a design standpoint, I asked our design team what they see as being innovative, and asked them what has made them particularly innovative. From the design team's perspective, sometimes budgetary considerations will force them into a design that might be more innovative.
Our creative team shares a short list of ways to innovate with their design work, and notes tangible things like creative use of die cuts, foils, and less colors of ink; less value adds, but using them in a creative way. The use of new packaging materials and finishes are innovations that also have an application in design. An example of this is the use of wine label papers that are capable of keeping water out and withstanding immersion in ice buckets. Note that these are not innovations that we've created, but they are innovations that have led to better packaging and collateral for our clients, so they are innovations we can get behind.
Leeann Froese is co-owner of the Town Hall agency based in Vancouver, BC, which does strategic marketing and communications, with a specialty on wine, food and hospitality.
See more of Leeann’s work on: townhallbrands.com
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