In today’s episode of the Idea to Value Podcast, we chat with Paul Sloane, one of Twitter’s biggest innovation influencers and author of multiple books on the subject, including the third edition of The Leader’s Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills.

In this week’s episode, we talk about why leader’s need courage to actually try new things and innovate, and learn some case studies of inspiring leaders who have succeeded in doing just that.

Topics covered in today’s episode:

  • What stops most companies from innovating is not a lack of ideas but a lack of leadership (01:30)
  • Is lateral thinking just a new way to think of lots of new ideas? (03:30)
  • Approaching problems from a new direction will lead to novel new solutions which can’t be found using a traditional academic way of solving a problem (04:45)
  • Leadership is about creating an environment where ideas can be turned into action (05:30)
  • Great leaders need to be both a firefighter and an arsonist (06:45)
  • Leaders need to give themselves time to focus on strategic activity and delegate other tasks (08:30)
  • Courageous leaders need to make decisions which could be difficult and potentially unpopular (09:30)
  • Why being innovative can be such a difficult decision because it can disrupt your own core business (10:30)
  • Great leaders realise they don’t have all the answers about how their company will reach their future goals, and let other team members contribute to finding the solutions to reach that goal over time (13:00)

Links mentioned in this episode:

  1. Paul’s Website: http://www.destination-innovation.com/
  2. Paul’s new book: The Leader’s Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlock the Creativity and Innovation in You and Your Team http://amzn.to/2f5cioH

Bonus:

This episode was made possible by our premium members and the Deep Creativity training system. Sign up now to get exclusive creativity exercises every single day and take your ability to generate ideas to the next level. Use coupon code PODCAST for 25% off your first month. Find out more at https://www.ideatovalue.com/deepcreativity/

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Creativity & Innovation expert: I help individuals and companies build their creativity and innovation capabilities, so you can develop the next breakthrough idea which customers love. Chief Editor of Ideatovalue.com and Founder / CEO of Improvides Innovation Consulting. Coach / Speaker / Author / TEDx Speaker / Voted as one of the most influential innovation bloggers.

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