There is a Reason Why Innovation is a Popular Word in Business

When we entered the "business world" out of college what seems like a long time ago, we all had a bit of a chip on our shoulder.   You all know what I mean.   Quickly, we realized we did not know as much as we thought we did and tried to determine who could help us develop the skills, knowledge, and expertise, to excel professionally.

There are a couple of folks who I considered to be mentors over the years, but the one that I undoubtedly learned the most from is a gentleman many environmental professionals probably do not know.  His name is Barry Libert. For nearly four years, I spent a significant amount of time with him as part of the management team that built a social networking company called Shared Insights that focused on providing social networking strategy, technology, and services for large, medium, and small enterprises.

He pushed me to think outside the box, to come up with answers to what seemed like impossible questions, and to challenge processes, procedures, and products to improve them as part of my responsibilities as a member of his leadership team.  While building this new business, our team was in tandem, running an established business that had been running for nearly 20 years.  Barry pushed all of his senior managers and staff to be innovative and try new things.  Our investors, and potential investors, did the same.

During that time, and today, I started to develop a passionate dislike for the words "We've always done it that way".   Those are the 6 Most Expensive Words in Business  proclaimed Tim Berry, CEO of Palo Alto Software in his recent blog.   Amen, Tim!

For those of us who want to think and feel strongly that the "We've always done it that way", I would like to ask you - do you truly believe that?

15 or 20 years ago....

Was technology available that could help you automate a lot of things you can today?

Were new employees entering your company, department, and workforce that have been exposed to technology, and even mobile technology, from the time they were in diapers?

Was your cell phone your black book?

Did you send many emails and have meetings over the web? 

Would anyone in the field have done an environmental site assessment and typed it up on their laptop or perhaps on a handheld device?  Or Would they have used a wireless internet card from onsite to add a report directly into a web application?

Then why would stuff "we've always done that way" still be the right way?

Jack Huntress' recent blog titled Learn from Netflix is really eye opening and has started a very relevant discussion.     They are not throwing out lessons learned in the past, but they are blending what has worked in the past, with what they believe will work in the future.

I would recommend we all think about taking a few educated risks, trying a few new things, and find time to step outside your current comfort zone.    You may find it is extremely rewarding. 

Although the basics of business have not changed, the methods and tools have.   Don't let "We've always done it that way" become the six most expensive words for your firm.