Take the Scare Factor Out of Innovating

In Havens’ view, innovation is not just a smart business strategy, “it’s most of what makes life worth living.” With an innovative approach, campus store staffers can serve their customers better and make their work easier at the same time. But, he noted, people are often intimidated by the idea of innovation.

“When people talk about the need to innovate, they usually talk about the need to come up with the Next Big Thing,” Havens said. He pointed out that some of the most innovative companies, such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, started out in a very limited, low-key way.

“The next Google is two people working in a garage you’ve never heard of. The next Facebook is two students working in a dorm room,” he said, adding, “Your next big thing will begin as a small thing.”

Havens has a simple process for sparking innovation in your store: Ask. Think. Do. Repeat.

The first step is to ask a question. Many innovations in the consumer world began with a question. Delta Airlines was originally just a crop-dusting service. “Then someone asked, ‘What if we carry passengers in the off season?’” Havens said.

Everybody owns wheeled luggage these days, but it’s only been around for a relatively short time. “We put wheels on the moon before we put it on luggage,” Havens said. Early versions were used only by airline personnel. Eventually this question arose: Is there a way to design wheeled luggage that would actually be comfortable to use? With the invention of the retractable handle, wheeled luggage took off with the public.

Stores can use a similar line of questioning to develop ideas for changing up procedures, product lines, and more. Here are some of the sample questions Havens offered:

• What are interesting things other bookstores are doing that we should copy?

• If our core business suddenly stopped making money, how might we generate revenue?

• What idea have we tried in the past and should revisit?

• What frustrates our customers?

• How can we motivate our employees’ energy?

• What is one process that slows us down?

• If we had an unlimited budget, how would we spend it?

• What’s the one skill we don’t have?

• Why do we do the things we do and how can we do them a different way?

Step two is to think about potential answers to the questions you’ve posed. “That the hardest part for most of us,” Havens conceded. While you’re at work, it can be difficult to find time among all your responsibilities to ponder possible ideas and solutions. Plus, “thinking doesn’t look very productive,” Havens said. “You see me sitting there with a far-off look in my eye. You’re not thinking I’m doing anything useful.”

And yet taking time to ruminate produces the best ideas, Havens said. “If you want to innovate, first seek to slow down,” he suggested. “One of the few upsides to the pandemic is that it forced everyone into a quieter space. I think we will look back on this time as one of the innovative, because we had no choice.”

If you can’t steal some time for thinking on the job, Havens said his favorite thinking places are while showering, exercising, walking, lying in bed unable to sleep, commuting, and traveling.

Step three is to act on the answers you came up with. This, too, can be difficult for some people, especially those who are more comfortable taking direction from others than in initiating their own ideas. Some feel they don’t have the expertise to put an idea in motion.

Havens reminded the audience that “you endlessly innovate in your personal life.” Situations, problems, and opportunities arise all the time and you develop a strategy to deal with them. If the strategy doesn’t work out, you change it, he said. Your ability to innovate in your off hours can be applied to your work life.

“You can do anything you want because you’ve been practicing this your entire life,” he said.