Too often, we get caught in looking at where we are and trying to work forward, which results in quite a bit of incremental improvement. Instead, we should be looking to the future and looking backward to see how we could get there using the technologies and capabilities available. This is what produces more innovative and transformational thinking — an area in which Herb Schul specializes.

Creating an innovation team comes with the good intention of driving innovation, but unfortunately, it’s often a misguided step that leads to negative outputs. When you limit innovation to just one team, you’re not tapping into the full potential available in your organization and creating an ‘us vs. them’ mentality, which means ideas do not move forward or get implemented.

This episode’s question comes from Ruth, who runs a direct sales home business with a great product; in all the training provided, they tell you to follow certain processes and systems to succeed. But when everyone else is doing the same thing and following the same steps, how do you stand out and be different?

People often sabotage or hinder their creativity, and it has a lot to do with how they define creativity and approach it. The good news is, creativity doesn’t have to be a long and laborious process, and if we define it right, exercise the creative side of our brains more, and give ourselves time to mull over ideas instead of jumping to judgment so quickly, all of us can be creative and come up with innovative ideas. Roger Firestien has just the tools to help us all get creative.

How can big teams and companies tackle growth strategies? It often requires them to move faster, be more nimble, and make faster decisions — basically to act like a startup. But this is not something that comes easily to massive companies with multiple layers of processes and systems in place. Chris Roark helps organizations achieve that startup speed.

Amy Franko is a keynote speaker, sales strategist, and author of The Modern Seller, an Amazon bestseller which was also named a 2019 top sales book by Top Sales World. Amy’s specialization is in B2B sales and sales leadership development. She works with a variety of organizations to accelerate their growth results and has been recognized by Top Sales World as one of the top 50 sales keynote speakers and top 50 sales bloggers in the world.

We’re adding in a new format to the podcast to answer your questions! Whatever your challenges, hurdles, and roadblocks are, I want to address them so that we can all keep learning and keep moving forward. I’d also love to hear of best practices of what’s worked for you in pushing innovation and change forward and how all of us can implement these ideas.

Jeff Grimshaw has worked with senior leaders for more than 25 years. Along the way, he’s helped hundreds of executives in dozens of companies to align people and strategy to produce important business results. Jeff is the co-author of two books and has also published articles in various publications. His latest book, Five Frequencies: Leadership Signals that Turn Culture into Competitive Advantage, dives into the ways in which leaders create culture through the signals they broadcast.

Lee Carter is a top communications specialist, a sought-after speaker, television personality, and author of Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don’t Seem to Matter. As an expert in finding the right language to promote a brand or to fix a company’s reputation following a corporate crisis, Lee is skilled at not just communicating clearly or concisely, but also in the art of speaking the language of your audience.

Tristan Wright, founder of Evolve to Grow, offers business owners more than just buzzwords and vague advice. Built on the experience of his own business successes and failures, he shows business owners how to grow their businesses while reducing workload, and keep them focused and accountable along the way.