In late August our summer vacation took us to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If that’s a part of our country you’ve never visited, I suggest that you add it to your destination list – the beaches are beautiful, the environment is quiet and clean, and there is an incredible amount of history to the place.
A significant part of the history comes to us courtesy of a couple of bicycle builders from Dayton, Ohio named Wilbur and Orville Wright. In fact, there’s a National Park – The Wright Brothers National Memorial – in Kill Devil Hills that commemorates their incredible achievement of controlled, powered flight. It is an amazing place to visit and learn.
Although one can argue that the events that occurred at Kill Devil Hills on December 17, 1903 changed the course of history, I believe that the events leading up to that day were much more important. As I learned the details of their story on that overcast, windy day this past August, I realized that Wilbur and Orville were teaching me about how to systematize innovation.
You can learn from them too. Straight from the history books, here are the Wright Brothers’ 5 steps to innovation:
1. Solicit outside help and become a voracious reader.
2. Create customized tools specific to your needs.
3. Plan meticulously and maintain a sharp focus on your goals.
4. Challenge both assumptions and conventional wisdom.
5. Find inspiration in ordinary things.
These 5 simple things can work in your business too. An easy way to get started is to turn each of them into questions that you can then answer. For example, your questions might be:
1. Who do I know that could potentially help us?
2. Which of our processes (tools) require redesign?
3. How can we improve at planning and at executing?
4. What assumptions do I have that could be holding us back?
5. Where can I find a fresh perspective on our situation?
The questions and their answers are just a start. What you actually do with them can make all the difference in the world – in fact, it could even change the course of history!
