What did a ladder, a toilet roll and a tin of spaghetti have in common??.

Rod Hattch from Wisdom Learning presented the first workshop of the Capital Region Business Expo 2008 and it really got the minds ticking of the attendees.  Rod presented on a topic close to every business owners heart – Innovation.  Creating improvements in business through innovative thinking and implementing it in our businesses.  Why then if it is close to our hearts do we put it to the end of the list, and sometimes right into the too hard basket when it comes to running our businesses?

Innovation, Rod explained, was about creativity and action to develop something new or improved in your business.  That comment got me thinking – what have I done in my business lately to create improvements?  What have you done lately?

Rod and his ladder, TP and Spaghetti

Rod and his Wisdom team ran an exercise in developing new ideas for your business and promised to come up with 5,000 ideas in 5 minutes. As the clock ticked over the pressure was on for our small but energetic group!  After the three groups finished the Green Calculator came out and it turns out we had some real achievers and knocked out 18,375 new ideas.

All we needed to do was develop a list of products, a list of packaging options and target markets.  From these lists connections were created and some new innovative ideas started appearing like the equations on the chalk board in ‘A beautiful mind!’

18,375 ideas and all of them gold!

It was a great presentation and got me thinking about what I could be doing to create small changes in my business?  Rod’s presentation is below along with some photos and video from the session.