Positioning for Innovation

 As we all consider options and opportunities for moving ourselves forward both personally and professionally… does Positioning for Innovation, rank high on your strategy list? 

Well this month’s Inspiring Innovations, LEARNING MOMENTS podcast first talks through the high value of building/operating a culture of innovation in every area of your daily life. Then… as always, the podcast “Discussionist” leaves you with a few ideas on how to spread the Positioning for Innovation activity and uniquely infect others with creativity concepts. 

 Enjoy the listen! 

Transcript

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Hello again, and welcome to the March of 2025 Inspiring Innovations Learning Moments Podcast. This is your monthly discussionist host, Marv Pickla, and I want to thank everyone who takes that seven to ten minutes of time each month to listen to these common personal and business sense messages. During these non-traditional times and ranges of uncertainty that seem to be almost a regular part of our everydays, sharing these solid communication, innovation, professional development, and leadership ideas and suggestions just feels more important than ever before. And I really hope they help. This month, this month, we are going to talk about the action of positioning yourself, your coworkers, and maybe your organization for innovation. So let me say it the way I've got it, you know, kind of organized in this talk. Positioning for innovation. Positioning for innovation. And I guess I'll start with a kind of a very important confirmation statement. Innovation is not achieved by sending out an email, a memo, or conducting a discussion at like a staff change meeting, okay? It's not all about that. Positioning for innovation is truly one of those culture things in your workplace, okay? And is only really brought forward through a regular, continuous, common sense series of activities and actions over time. And as you can guess, creating and retaining a culture of innovation is not achieved unless it's felt and sustained by everybody, everybody engaged as an individual and in your company organization operation. Think about it. Do you prioritize innovation for yourself, for those you work with? Do you look forward to change and challenging the way it's always been? Or are things just good enough the way they are? Creating a culture of innovation and thereby taking steps toward positioning for innovation are actions that also must be driven from the top down. And you know what I'm thinking about and referring to. Leaders, leadership individually or across an organization must be example setting for innovation. Leadership by example setting doesn't mean that I'm promoting that innovation can only be offered from those in those top spots, those leadership positions that you think about. You know about those personnel situations that sometimes people think new ideas don't come from anyone but from those top dogs. And then it doesn't seem to be such a good idea. Rather, I'm talking about an organization that has a wide open door for everybody to share new ideas all the time. And that's what I meant by example setting and culture of growth innovation. Okay? Growing that culture of growth innovation. So now that we have a good understanding of the need for establishing a great innovation culture, what needs to be done to effectively start positioning for innovation throughout your professional sectors? First, first, think about communication styles. Maybe your communication styles. Is your method of messaging inviting, energizing, and improvement driven? Or is it a regular kind of newsletter that offers a lot of information on maybe past achievements instead of this is where we need to go items? What about that? What's your communication style in terms of innovation energy? Okay. Second, are personal personnel challenges and or assignments given to random coworkers from time to time? Do people in the organization have that, I hope they pick me to help lead the next thing attitude? Or is it that one hides and openly states that I hope I'm not the one picked for that special assignment? Where do you fall in this scenario? Would you be ready for a positioning for innovation opportunity? Think about it. Next, consider the different meeting structures that you become involved in. Are your their monthly agendas similar to every other meeting that's happened, even from a year or more ago? Does a structure in the agenda challenge you professionally? Does it make you think about continuous improvement or put an almost I'm gonna go asleep style because it's got the same old content? Is positioning for innovation even a consideration in someone's in your agenda setting process? Finally, if you're involved with a board of directors, do you place them in a situation that calls for positioning for innovation? Do you put them in that kind of situation? Is there an operational opportunity in working with the board members to authentically, authentically engage them to think and act in an innovative mode? Well, I'm pleased to report that back in my director days, it was both energizing and pleasing to know that board members from our organization honestly look forward to positioning for innovation opportunities and even their chances to be a real part of the innovation action. It was great. Well, it's almost time to wrap up this month's innovation learning moment, you know, the positioning for innovation message. And just for the record, even today, be it good or bad, for those I work with, I am positioning myself for innovation every day, all the time. So think about the full content of this podcast and consider strongly putting yourself in that positioning for innovation path. Okay, think about it. Because that path always has great potential. Thanks so much again for listening this month, and we'll talk next month.