Which way are you looking?

Coming up with creative ideas isn't easy for anyone, but forward-looking people have a much easier time!

An article today in United Press International talks about how CEOs can help their companies be more innovative just by focusing on the future:

Companies whose chief executives speak about future events and external activities innovate more than those whose chiefs don't, a U.S. university study says.

“By simply counting the number of future-oriented sentences in annual reports we can predict future innovation by the firm,” said marketing Professor Rajesh Chandy of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

CEOs who focus their attention on future events and external activities lead their firms to early adoption and invention of new technologies and greater and faster development of innovations, said Chandy, whose study appears in the next issue of the Journal of Marketing.

In contrast, firms whose CEOs focus on internal operations are slower to detect, adopt and implement new technologies, Chandy’s study found. Words, not just actions, of the CEO set the tone to inspire, propel and motivate employee innovation, he said....

This actually makes a lot of sense!  Why?

When someone focuses on getting things done in the current system, they're reinforcing that system in their minds.  Plus, they spend all their time looking at the same situations over and over again.

Focusing on the present is easy because there are no unknowns.

Talking about the future does one thing that makes innovation easier: it opens the mind up to new possibilities. 

The future, by it's very nature, is uncertain.  Prices could go down in a bidding war, a new competitor could emerge, or a new craze could sweep the nation.

It's like a big box of chocolates!  No one ever knows what they're going to get!

But this is a good thing for innovators. Planning for multiple futures, and imagining new possibilities is a great way to force the brain from its comfort zone.

Plus, setting future goals motivates companies to search for ways to realize those goals.

Whether that's inventing something new themselves, taking advantage of another new development, or being the first to see an emerging opportunity, people who are looking towards the future will see possibilities much quicker than people who concentrate on existing structures.

So, what do you do?  Are you focusing on the future, or are you consumed by your day-to-day operations?

Note: This does not imply that focusing on internal operations is bad--it's very necessary.  It's just important to know which focus is needed at each time.

Comments

[Annie Laurie Hall]

Today's blog is RIGHT ON! I have personally been involved in a company where we purposefully used the theme "Focusing on the Future" in our company for a year. I would recommend the book "Competing for the Future" by Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad to business leaders everywhere. It is well written and offers some interesting insights. It's a great book to review as a top management team as a leadership development excercise.