For the past couple of weeks, South Australia has been focused on innovation and technology. We’ve had a number of conferences, from Mobilising Women in Tech, to Southstart, to the Social Capital conference.

There are a lot of people doing innovative things here, and thinking creatively, there is no question about that. The question is in how all of this is being applied.

At the root cause of shift, businesses in South Australia need to be asking: What do we need to get better at?

How organisations learn to be more innovative

To innovate, and be effective in that innovation, an organisation needs to prioritise the creation of an innovation culture. Strategically, this means having the right goals in place, and working to plans that foster innovation and creative thinking.

The two are different things.

On the one hand, we want to be able to put ideas into action. That’s really what ‘innovation’ is: The application of ideas to creating something new.

To do this, and do it well, we have to prioritise creative thinking. Even if the solution is technical, or technology-based, the application requires a creative thinking process.

Busyness is an innovation killer, especially for leaders

When you’re an effective innovator, you are able to use strategies that help your brain’s ability to think differently. Being overwhelmingly busy isn’t conducive to this work: A busy brain doesn’t have the capacity to think in a different way.

Our leaders' busy brains stop them from thinking creatively and innovatively. Click To Tweet

There are three things that help us to improve our innovation capability. They are:

  1. Learning new things, which helps us to expand our thinking.
  2. Creating positive emotions, which helps us to broaden our awareness.
  3. Having enough time to reflect and daydream, which helps us to shift our thinking into another gear.

Footbridge photograph by Michael Coghlan

Great things will come from changing how we approach our businesses

South AUstralia has a great track record. Historically, the state has been a leader in creating and developing new things, from the Torrens Title property system, to the world’s best design and building practices.

What we need to do is be encouraged by past success and embrace the state’s capacity for being different. It’s no good relying on ideas from the manufacturing age when we are facing advanced manufacturing based in an ideas economy.

Ideas are what South Australia has traditionally done best. Click To Tweet

With great support for innovative devices, tech, big data, and even wellbeing, South Australia is not only a great place to live, but a great place to work. And with a change in how our leaders and organisations approach business – to encourage innovation thinking, and to apply creative thinking to new ways of doing business –  our businesses will sustain South Australia into the future.

Create an innovation culture in your business

Shifting to an innovation culture in your business is easier than you think! Training x Design has a complete innovation cultures training program that will enable your leaders to take your team into the future.

Give us a call on 1300 662 907 or send us an email for more information.