It’s time for us all to start to question the traditions of the past and start to focus on reinventing the future. It’s time to question, innovate and most importantly – create!
Traditions
So let me ask you a question first of all, what are you having for Sunday lunch this week? I’m sure like most people; if you live in the UK you’ll be having a Roast with all of the trimmings. If I asked the same question in a month or two the answer would once again most likely be the same.
If I then asked you the same question for the 3rd time you would then wonder what type of idiot I was. “Of course I’m having a roast dinner” you would answer. Now there is nothing wrong with following a tradition, there is no need to even think about what you eat every Sunday lunchtime…
While traditions can be nice in a family or even a community setting, they don’t serve the same purpose when it comes to the world of business. Tradition can mean that we go through the motions and don’t necessarily tap into our creative potential.
When conforming to traditions, it means that our brains in a way switch off and we don’t then think critically about what we are doing. That means we will just do what we have always done meaning we will always get what we have always got (the same results).
Give yourself a chance!
Consider the age of your business, if it is more than 12 months old it will have traditions and norms that you and your colleagues would have developed habits and traditions around. These may be hindering your chances of helping your business to move forward. Ideas, processes, systems, techniques and past habits will hold you back in today’s competitive (and challenging) economic world. Even worse than this, your workers may focus their attention on less creative work thus meaning they will fail to create new ideas when you need them most.
It has often been said great leaders advocate change, they acknowledge the past but they often win by reinventing themselves and their companies time and time again to present a clear image for the future. In most circumstances in business, these leaders are often open minded and brimming with curiosity is of great importance when it comes to creativity and maintaining a successful business.
Do things differently
With the business world constantly changing and innovating, we must question past habits and focus on what we can do differently to really maximise our full potential in business. What do we want the future to look like? How can we make it so? The alternative is that the future is merely an extrapolation of what we have already created. It’s time to question, imagine and innovate. Each of us holds the potential to create new ways in which we tackle problems, adjust techniques and really allow our organisations to be something incredibly unique.
So whether you’re ‘passing the roast potatoes’ at Sunday lunch or at the office, now is a perfect time to break with tradition and find out what you and your creative mind can achieve.
