When Intention Meets Innovation
Every great innovation begins with a decision. Yes. But why THAT decision?
Often, innovation is “accidental”. Driven by #change. #Reactive. And then the song “Highway to Hell“ is dialed up nice and loud.
In one of my favorite stories from my Lift talk, a young girl asks her father why he always bakes small loaves of bread instead of full-sized ones. He smiles and says, “Because that’s how it’s always been done.” She pauses, then asks again, “But why?” After a few more curious questions, he remembers that his own parents baked small loaves because their oven was too small to fit large ones. That realization sparks a moment of insight: they had been following a limitation that no longer existed. The story reminds us that innovation often begins when we ask why something is done a certain way and choose to reimagine it with intention.
When we choose to bring intention to innovation, yes, it can take more time on the front end to have a conversation and do a planning discovery session, but the value we generate is far beyond time and money, and moves into the domains of relationship trust, team strengths, and organizational vision being realized. As a PMP, part of our study includes learning methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma and Kaizen - both of which take the time to ask “Why do we do this, this way?”. This reduces waste and stress, releases projects earlier with higher quality.
Intentional innovation comes when you make time to ask questions of your processes, methods, tools, technology and most importantly - humanology, the human-centric pieces of your project such as mindset, communication styles, meeting styles.
Ask “What’s Working?” before asking “What could be better?” and “How could we make this 1% better for everyone?” . Try it at your next project meet and see what happens.
Key Points:
Intentional innovation means frontloading some time into a meet, but transforms ideas into more meaningful action, less waste.
Ask WHY? And why again? Root cause it if needed. Sustainable progress begins with active-listening conversation, not constant urgency.
SLOW is smooth, and SMOOTH is FAST.
Don’t believe me, look at the data: Research from McKinsey & Company shows that while about 84 % of executives believe innovation is critical to growth, only around 6 % are satisfied with their organization’s innovation performance. McKinsey & Company
Takeaway Question: What long-standing habit or process in your world might deserve a fresh look, and why?
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