First, innovation may likely not just come from a good idea you had on your drive into work. It may involve part of that thought that gets plugged into a need you encounter later on that day. A conversation ensues and before you know it you have written up a proposal and you’ve got an innovative little project on your hands. Let’s say you’ve defined what success looks like (always do this–have many examples) and things are humming along well for a while. Everybody’s getting their needs met. Then something changes…something isn’t working the same. Users aren’t expressing interest, some staff have lost drive for it…what do you do? How do you let something that meant so much and likely provided so much meaning, impact, use at one time drift away? Well, sometimes you have to do just that. Even with innovation we must know when to say yes and when to say no; when to hang on and when to let go.
How do we learn to let go of what is not working. What was innovative at one time–will it always be…we must keep our fingers on the pulse, knowing that unless we can let go we’ll likely cause another kind of brickwall effect.