It may not be the biggest spends or equipment that produce your company’s highest revenue or outcomes for good.
All innovation is interesting. But the source of some of the best ideas in business—the ones that drive high revenue, grow your people, and make the biggest difference in the world—may be a surprise to us all.
I’ll admit it. I’m as prone as anyone to wanting to do what I do best: design and build gigantic robot systems, design world firsts, and chase the ideas nobody accomplished before. But as we work to change the world, I’m finding it especially interesting to look more deeply at the origination of the best ideas we see in our business.
They didn’t come in the ways we’d expected.
Many came from our employees, or from our customers, partners, and family. Others came from taking a closer look at the problems we face as a country and designing logistical new ways to succeed. But we’re learning that looking more intently for unexpected areas of influence can contribute to finding and creating the best innovations.
So, let’s examine this idea more closely:
Our employees
I challenge us all to consider the creativity in our own organizations with greater intention. However we do it, it’s hard to overstate the value of what we may learn. Where are the pain points? Do our people have the information and resources they need to manage the areas they cover? What repetitive tasks could we automate? Or are there fundamental ways to reimagine the nature of these jobs altogether? How could we eliminate or streamline the peripheral efforts? And how could we use that knowledge to empower our customers, too?
Our client’s employees
One of our biggest innovations this year came from nurses’ ideas at a major nonprofit hospital network, where they examined the ways technology could reduce the physically taxing and “burnout” parts of their jobs.They asked whether specially designed “cobots” could work alongside their human counterparts to do the carrying, lifting, sorting, and inventory management that makes healthcare roles so physically taxing. Doing this could significantly reduce burnout and turnover, help alleviate nursing shortages, and help support the work that produces their greatest satisfaction and results—time directly interacting with patients.
Partners and family
An astounding number of people are experts in their trade and have all had a “million-dollar idea.” But most people lack the resources, incentives, and innovation frameworks to follow through with their ideas. When included in the fold of an innovation system, they have the chance to bring their ideas to fruition. Doing so in our innovation framework has led to many new patent filings and engineering solutions.
On a personal note, I relish conversations with my children that start with, “Dad, why can’t we do this differently?” when thinking about the world’s problems. Or the call from my mother: “Son, I was thinking about your project and you might consider this.” My life has taught me she’s right more often than not.
Out-of-box thinking about the world’s greatest woes
Finally, the most enriching part of innovation analysis. What are the biggest challenges currently facing the U.S.? Rising facility costs. Global warming. The high energy consumption of AI and electric vehicles. Food insecurity and supply chain disruption. Each of these problems can be solved with innovation, and by using AI and robotics as well.
We can create virtual organizations with smaller physical footprints. We can be the outsourced innovation hub for bigger brands that don’t have the liberty of moving so nimbly and quickly. We can marry distribution warehouse locations with the places where food and perishable goods are produced. We can eliminate plastic food wrappings to keep food significantly fresher while also reducing the plastic particles and “forever chemicals” that destroy our environment and negatively impact our health.
Now for the cherry on top: Once we identify the innovations, we don’t have to execute on every idea ourselves. We can share our ideas with younger, smaller, or ideally aligned organizations. We can help fund them and create joint venture partnerships to build new solutions together as their organizations (and ours) continue to grow.I maintain that true mission-based leadership isn’t protective and doesn’t operate in secret. To every degree possible, it’s wide open. Most importantly, it gives credit where credit is due.
As we practice this thinking, we grow faster and better than ever before, and can improve the world in new ways.
Best of all, fostering an innovation culture puts a kind of excitement in the air. The work we do not only becomes more profitable and gets progressively better, but it’s also more rewarding and fun.
Matthew A. Chang is the cofounder and principal engineer for Chang Robotics.
About Fast Company:
Fast Company is a leading business media brand with a focus on innovation in technology, leadership, world-changing ideas, creativity, and design. Known for its forward-thinking articles and commitment to exploring the future of business, Fast Company showcases influential voices and groundbreaking perspectives across industries. We’re excited to share that Chang Robotics’ founder, Matthew Chang, is now a contributing author, bringing insights on robotics, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership to their readership.
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