During the early stages of establishing their new business, over-50 entrepreneurs struggle with innovation, more so than younger GenXer and Millennial generations. The reason is twofold.
First, over-50 entrepreneurs (Baby Boomers) have spent more years in the workplace, immersed in corporate politics and restrictive “get-along” decision-making. The impact of traditional seniority promotions has pushed them into upper management positions, which means their most recent experiences before leaving the corporation have been in managing and facilitating processes and people. In other words, the people below them have the responsibility to bring creative solutions to the table to be approved. Upper management’s primary responsibility is to organize the logistics and finance the approved solutions.
The further away you get from frontline product problem-solving, the less creative you have to be. One job is idea-oriented; the other is execution-oriented. Both are important, but fire up the synapses, nodes, and electrical impulses in different regions of the brain. (We talk a lot about components of the business brain in FIFTEEN CRITICAL INSIGHTS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS OVER FIFTY – to be released on January 30, 2021)
When it comes to pure creative thinking, most over-50 business brains are out of shape. To avoid confrontations and perceived misalignment with team objectives, they have learned to suppress their true passions and creative juices. They must now take time to re-learn and re-prioritize. It will happen. But this complex mental transition takes a while to morph into place.
The second reason for the creative struggle is some over-50 entrepreneurs have gone through their entire career and never really understood what innovative thinking really is. Let’s define it now.
Innovative thinking, sometimes referred to as creative thinking, reflects the ability to look at challenges from a fresh, uncommon perspective and find unusual solutions to apply. People who demonstrate this ability usually possess a rich imagination that allows them to envision things out of the ordinary. New ideas may stem from looking at old ideas from a fresh perspective, improving each iteration until a totally new product emerges. The evolutionary method of creativity reminds us every problem that has already been solved can be solved again in a better way. Successful architects, designers, and screenwriters tend to use innovative thinking throughout their daily routine. It’s right-brain thinking with a left-brain twist.
Included in this article are three different types of innovative products resulting from three different types of creative thinking modes. The Blockbuster overnight stay quenches the human thirst for nostalgia. The senior citizen bed-stepper satisfies Maslow’s hierarchy of needs related to safety. The Oreo popcorn extends the popularity of a familiar brand to a uniquely different product category.
As a business owner, mastering the art of creative thinking protects you from the latent tendency to pretend you’re thinking inside the restrictive cradle of your subconscious mind. Real thinking is not easy. It requires a deliberate effort to unlink from the bias of long-term memory and allow all of the amazing horsepower under your hood to fire unrestricted, free of pre-programming, on all cylinders.
Let there be no doubt. In your new business, you’re going to need this powerful mental tool to succeed. Get the knowledge you need. Sign up for the release notification here.