Growth and innovation are synonymous and inseparable. Part of personal, professional, or organizational growth is developing a culture of learning new methods, implementing new ideas, and going beyond the norm.
Innovate means to make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products; it is the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulate needs, or existing market needs.
“We cannot solve a problem by using the same kind of thinking when we created them.’’
~Albert Einstein
With little experience, my preconceived notion was that it took only one brilliant idea to propel an individual to greater heights; whether professionally, financially, or socially. I joined Impact Africa Network with the belief that innovation is a eureka moment followed by a huge success and immediate recognition.
Fast forward dozens of months later; having worked on different projects, made numerous presentations, participated in hosting three major events that impacted the Nairobi innovation ecosystem; and made countless entrepreneurial interactions; my patience, wisdom, and eagerness to learn grew trifold.
I was presented with what I would call a light bulb moment: Innovation has little to do with dark rooms and eureka moments. It is achieved through community, collaboration, and learning; a state of continuous improvement.
It is not until recently (with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic), that I came to appreciate the lessons learned, mistakes made along the way, and most of all, the growth.
Here are some of the key lessons;
- Collaboration and Community
Half of the knowledge I have acquired over the past year is information either referred to me by a colleague, friend, or the organization’s career accelerator program.
I would attribute my success at work and personal development to these particular contributors.
“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.”
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Impact Africa Network Team at the Bridge to the Future event that we organized early this year. Teamwork & amazing synergy were some of the lessons I learnt during this event.
For projects or tasks, it is prudent to get input from various quarters and iterate continuously in order to achieve your goals.
For collaboration to be effective, the silo mentality needs to be avoided like a plague; this is a reluctance to share information with employees of different divisions in the same company. This attitude is seen as reducing the organization’s efficiency and, at worst, contributing to a damaged corporate culture.
Instead, adopt mission-control team-effort thinking.
2. Be Bold and Ask
This reinforces the first point. The world is an ever-evolving landscape of information.
Seeking the latest methods of implementation is important in coming up with the best solution for a situation.
Coming from an education system that emphasized sitting alone on a desk and scratching one’s head for answers, we tend to believe that it is the only approach.
On the contrary, in our day to day work life, seeking clarification and asking for help is one of the most vital actions one can take to improve themselves and be successful in execution. Aside from saving on time, it enables one to develop clarity around a task.
Stop sitting there and start asking! Make use of Twitter, LinkedIn, your colleagues, and even workshops to consult with people in your field of work. Being ‘humble’ and shying away from people has been seen as a way of showing respect. Except, it only hinders you from learning and doing better. Shoot that email to that successful professional and hope for a response you never know.
My mantra is simple: You never know > you will never know.
How are you to build an innovative startup using traditional means?
How do you expect to grow by doing the same old techniques you used last year?
How?
In this century, those rewarded are those willing to go beyond whatever ‘normal’ constraints are.
Part of Impact Africa Network’s culture of asking and learning is hosting successful entrepreneurs for ‘Lunch & Learn’ sessions. Chris Muraguri Founder of Micrive Infinite was one of our first guests.
3. Storytelling( Not advertising)
In your field of work or your organization, you should be able to tell a story and not just give out information. There is a huge difference between creating awareness, sensationalism, and making an impact. Storytelling is making an impact, moving the needle, and actually creating a relationship.
In telling a story, key elements should be owning the process, empathy, and presentation. Owning the process entails immersing yourself in the task and trying as much as possible to understand it completely. Empathy requires putting aside your personal opinions and getting other people’s perspectives; this may include going out and getting views of those concerned, mapping out their opinions, and creating a persona from that. Finally, the presentation is all about delivery and communication.
4. Execution and Iteration
For execution; start with a guidance principle and map out your process.
In every task, do the grunt work or as they say, sweat the details and corner the cases. It always pays off.
A metric of success should be simple: Outputs not inputs.
There’s no other way. JUST DO IT!
“Ideation without execution is a delusion.”
~Robin Sharma
5. Information is Wealth
Invest in building knowledge in your field of work religiously. From podcasts, articles, Ted talks, journals to informative social media threads, and other educational platforms.
With information, you can gauge where you are, see the bigger picture, and figure how you fit into it. Podcasts like How I built this, Chini ya Maji podcast, and Y contaminator have played a big role in my learning.
All the above culminate in organic, continuous, and innovative growth in every aspect of life.
