I was recently corresponding with a member of our Innovation Team on facebook and a very cool insight on innovation happened. We had begun the conversation about a book but then when I asked him to share about his particular innovation that he was working on, he sent back a summary of the last year's progress.
At the end of the summary he shared how helpful it had been to write it down and how surprised he was to see that more progress was being made that he had ever imagined.
When we are in the middle of a major innovation effort, we can't see how far we have come. The daily challenges mount and keep our eyes focused down on the ground. We can become so focused on the project that we don't see when major shifts happen. We may have taken our idea in a whole new direction and not even realize it.
So I would like to share three things that can keep us plugged into the bigger goal while we are slogging through the daily struggles.
Pencils: Journaling, blogging, twittering are all ways that you can share where you are at. The ability to write down what is happening will help you to process it and look at it in the bigger context.
Stones: When you hit a milestone (it is good to identify some of them at the outset) you need to put a stone (figuratively or literally) there and celebrate that step. Those stones are key to giving us perspective.
Good Friends: Who are you sharing about the progress of your innovation with? Do you have some good friends and colleagues that are dialed into your journey? They give you perspective because they are looking at your process in a new way.
Blessings as you set your innovation in perspective today!
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