During 2018 many new innovations were developed and one of the most interesting ones is a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a “smart pill” which contains a strain of bacteria and electronics that can be used to identify signs of disease in a person’s body.
Hopefully as this technology improves many of the challenges of correctly diagnosing patients can be eliminated.
How did these researchers think of this innovation?
Perhaps one of them was faced with the problem that they had an ailment their attending medical team could not identify the cause of and instead of just “putting up” with the un-diagnosed problem, they decided to figure out a solution.
In reality, an intentional process is required to develop innovations. This process begins with looking at problems one may encounter in a different way than most people do.
See Every Problem as an Opportunity for Innovation
When most people run into a difficulty or impediment they think “obstacle”, whereas when an innovative person runs into the same situation they think “opportunity”.
A foundational tool of ideation and innovation is to see every problem that one encounters as an opportunity for an invention or innovation. However, many people view problems they encounter only as adversities, nuisances, or obstacles to achieving their goals, which they need to just put up with or work around, instead of seeing them as circumstances that are ripe for a potential solution.
To make this game-changing viewpoint operational in your and your employee’s lives, from the time you or they wake up in the morning, until bedtime, you want to think of one or more solutions for anything that does not go one-hundred percent smoothly during the day.
Your Bathroom Mirror Gets Fogged Up
For instance, let’s say you are getting ready for your work day and your bathroom mirror gets fogged up. Instead of just putting up with this problem you decide to figure out some solutions. For example:
- A mirror that is wired to heat up when you turn on the bathroom light so it does not fog up
- The infusing of material into the mirror surface that eliminates fogging up
- A mirror that has a quiet fan at the top of it that blows air on it to keep it from fogging up
There could be a ton of other solutions you develop for this problem.
Many People Incur the Same Problem You Are Facing
This intentional process includes coming up with solutions for problems encountered both while you are at work and away from work. Keep in mind that at the end of 2018 there were 7.7 billion people in the world, and if just 1% of them encountered the same problem as you did, there would be a possible market of 77,000,000 people for your solution!
Once this mindset has been practiced, you will literally see opportunities for innovations everywhere. Further developing this mindset will enable you to start to envision or imagine new and innovative ideas for products and services, which are unrelated to any problems you have encountered, but ones that fulfill potential market opportunities.
Asking “What If”
Taking this one step further provides us with another foundation of innovation and a great way to jumpstart the innovation process. To do this, ask “what if” such and such product or service existed as result of the various life situations you encounter as you go throughout your day.
For instance, what if soup spoons wouldn’t slide into a bowl of soup. Perhaps, you could develop an innovation of putting a slight ridge on the bottom of a soup spoon, so it would stay on the side of the bowl and not slide into the soup?
Where to Start
First train you and your staff to see every problem or obstacle that is encountered as an opportunity for innovation. This will begin to unlock creativity within your entire organization and start to develop an 
innovation mentality throughout your company. Once people begin to utilize this mindset, they will start to dream up new and innovative ideas for products and services that are unrelated to problems they confront.
Next, to release innovative ways of thinking, start asking “what if” with regard to how your organization currently operates. Then take this approach to the next level by pondering what if you did “X” to try to meet your customers’ needs.
If you could use assistance with enabling your personnel to view difficulties or impediments they encounter as opportunities for innovations versus obstacles in their lives, please contact us using the below information so we can be a resource to you in this crucial area.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17 years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.
Office: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
Tags: entrepreneur, innovation, small business consulting, small business planning, start a business
