Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM JULY 2023 46 W ithout success, companies perish. But success can create its own traps, if it ends up stifling creativity. Innovation is the lifeblood of successful organizations. It takes courage to break free from the safety of the status quo – especially if the status quo is filled with success. A business that dares to challenge its established ways and open itself to new possibilities will build a practiced skill of creative innovation that will serve it well down the line. The companies that constantly challenge their team members to innovate are cultivating their next, next, and next creative breakthroughs. How can you guide your team to refresh the creativity that brought you your present success? Here are five ways companies can challenge their thinking. 1. Become a Fugitive from Your Norms Starting at an early age, we are constantly encouraged to fit into society's norms. The habit of fitting-in will keep us safely in conformance with what's always been done. Thus our personal history will help perpetuate the norm. But conforming to the norm means cutting out possibilities, including the opportunity to innovate our way to constant progress and increasing success. To create new products or services, or uniquely reposition our brand, we must become fugitives from conformity. When we break free of the expected norms, we will do things differently than others expect, including our customers and competitors. Patagonia is a great example, with its core value: "Not Bound By Convention." They view this powerful value as greatly contributing to their success: "Our success – and much of the fun – lies in developing new ways to do things." 2. Reframe What's at Stake One of the go-to questions I ask teams that are embarking on a creative or strategic challenge is: "What's at stake?" This simple question helps us get to the core of why we're doing what we're doing, and the change we're wanting to make. How we define success is bound to change over time. As a team hits its monster goals and innovates its way into new territory, what's at stake can change, too. By changing the stakes, we're freeing ourselves from our past successes, goals, and ambitions and setting our sights on new vistas of achievement. Reframing what we now envision as success will ignite our passion for what's next. 3. Break Free of Sameness "We've always done it this way" should set off alarm bells, because it's a sure signal of sameness and conformity that can stifle creativity. "Sameness" is how we've done things until now. Yes – it's efficient! It works! But as a habitual way of thinking, it's a dangerous trap, if it's holding a team back from its creative potential. Teams can break free of their sameness ruts by reframing how they see themselves and the context of their customer relationships. You might challenge your team by redefining the industry you're in. For example, a real estate company I work with is reframing itself as a lifestyle company. 4. Create Creative Trust Trusting others doesn't mean that no one is going to be making mistakes. It means that you trust each other to fix or resolve the mistakes. Fear can grow quickly, but trust needs to be earned patiently, over time. When we support our teammates as they take risks and make mistakes, we discover that trust pays real dividends. Your team's creativity will expand more freely if they know that you're trusting them to fix the issues that will inevitably occur. 5. "Permission to Fail" Sometimes Sometimes, innovation will fail. For most people, "failure" is loaded with horrifying emotional baggage. The stigma of failure is that it signals weakness – even though it can be very far from true, it's engrained in us from an early age. But when we reframe failure as a natural part of learning, we free ourselves from the grip of fear, and our creativity can expand exponentially. By reframing our mistakes as breaking new ground, and by changing our thinking, challenging ourselves, and pushing ourselves to undiscov- ered places, we can make room for creative leaps. When we practice thinking differently, we become skilled at knowing our own creative ways and what the market really expects from us. Businesses that challenge their ways are building a critical skill of all creative innovators. They discover a never-ending, constantly expanding "what's possible." Multiply the creative insights over years or decades, and the innovative company will be barely recognizable. Meanwhile, those who safely hold back and imitate the creative companies are playing a game of catch-up that will mark them as also-rans and doom them as forgotten entities. SUCCESS KILLS CREATIVITY 5 WAYS COMPANIES CAN NURTURE IT BACK Steven Morris On Brand Steven Morris is a brand, culture and leadership advisor, author, and speaker. Over his 25+ years in business he's worked with 3,000+ business leaders at 250+ global and regional companies. Discover: https://matterco.co RO

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