Home Pastors Pastor Blogs Why “Need” Is Essential To Learning & Innovation

Why “Need” Is Essential To Learning & Innovation

Most people learn best when they “need” to learn. Most adults don’t seek help until they get to a place of need. For example, how many people go get counseling when they don’t see or feel the need to get counseled?

Unfortunately, for many leaders of companies or organizations, they have ceased to view innovation as a “need”. They have settled for “expertise”, more specifically, static, 10 years behind expertise. This lack of need is killing thousands of companies and organizations. Disguising this organizational commitment to death with management nomenclature or faulty rationalization based on excuses like limited resources and time will not prevent the inevitable.

Architect a Culture of Need

Shift happens and it can happen for your business or organization. Here are some ideas:

  • Create Space for the Cross Pollination of Disciplines
    • Take yourself and your team to unfamiliar spaces. Consider participating or attending an event outside the scope of your profession. This will spark unexpected creativity. For example, take your team to a fashion show, art gallery, visit the heroic work of community developers, attend a conference outside of your focus, have milk & cookies, or have a meeting as team as you walk around your neighborhood.
  • Revisit & Re-Identity What You’re Trying to Solve
    • Go back and reconsider why you’re producing what you’re producing. This may sound elementary, but it’s important. This takes on the spirit of what sports coaches like Vince Lombardi and John Wooden would do with their players each year, that is, reintroduce them to a football and a basketball. Ask your team why they do what they do and if you dare, ask them why you think you do what you do.
  • Humble Yourself and Invite the Third Eye
    • None of us have arrived. Period. All of us need help, even those of us who are considered experts in the field. For most of us, we are too close to “the action” to see what’s going on around us. We need outside eyes and voices to help form the future of our companies or organizations. Even as a consultant myself, I need other consultants and coaches. The reality is that all of us are faking it to some level. Just admit it. We all could use some help. Take the time and resources to invest back into your work. Outside voices will save you thousands of dollars as well as moments of unnecessary heartache.

Innovation requires a deep sense of learning that is rooted in a deep sense of “need”.

Do you feel the “need” for anything?

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charleslee@churchleaders.com'
Charles is the CEO & Chief Idea-Maker at Ideation, a brand innovation company that specializes in helping businesses & organizations build remarkable brands via innovative business design, organizational change architecture, brand integration, design, web, and marketing services. He is also the author of Good Idea. Now What?: How to Move Ideas to Execution, a practical book designed to help people move ideas to implementation. Charles is regularly invited to speak to leading companies and organizations on topics such as creativity, innovation, idea-making, and branding. Executive leaders from brands including Wells Fargo, Toyota, The White House, Catalyst, William Morris Endeavor, mun2, Council of Urban Professionals, Chick-fil-A, and many others have benefited from having Charles present at their key events.