Re:Think: Innovation at Work – Idea Journal
Time – is a critical factor for all of us as we try to juggle the multiple tasks that demand our immediate attention. In the process, many a time, we feel that we have become a automaton, working without thinking.
But we always have that persistent belief that we need to do something innovative to enable building the organization of the future.
As the first step of Innovation, let us start by maintaining an Idea Journal. Idea Journal is usually a physical book that you can jot down your ideas as and when they occur to you. Be it in the middle of a meeting or personal time or at home. Immediately jot down your ideas.
As a simple modification to the Idea Journal, start the "Idea Journal" to consist of two parts –
1. All the ideas that you had over your career, but for variable reasons did not follow through, leading to us regretting it later. Jot the idea and the reasons why you did not follow it, and what you think would have done differently.
2. All the ideas you had in the last 12 months, including the ideas you heard from your team members. Jot them down. Plan for next steps, prioritize and identify Ideas that you would like to deep dive.
This will be an ongoing activity over the next couple of weeks and into the future. But to start with you may want to allocate some “me-time” to initiate the Idea Journal.
Idea Journal is your personal journal, so no idea is small or large enough. No idea is credible or incredible. No idea is feasible or outrageous. No idea should have any limits or boundaries. No idea should be hindered by the current scenario or infrastructure or organizational boundaries. No idea should be blocked for fear of failure. No Idea need to be successful.
And above all, Idea Journal need not be about your work environment only. It can be Ideas of other businesses, your personal ideas etc.,
Let us start the first step of starting our “Personal Idea Journal”. Get a Notebook that will stand to usage and for a period of time!
I would appreciate if you can also take a minute for a simple survey on Idea Journal consisting of two questions
1. Do you maintain an Idea Journal? (Yes/No)
2. If you maintain an Idea Journal, the number of ideas in the Idea Journal in the last 12 months?
The poll will close on Wednesday, 6th May. I would like to publish the results on Thursday. The survey is completely anonymous. Please take one minute of your time to take the survey