Innovation can be challenging. It’s easy to say, “Think outside the box” and then try to come up with new ideas. There are lot’s of techniques and processes that can help. Heck there’s a whole shelf of books promoting great methods to help you and your business become more innovative. And the exciting fact is that many of them work. (My personal favourite over the years has been “Storyboarding”.) But the one topic that no one seems to ever address is this, “Where do we find the time and resources to implement these new ideas?”

Yep, one big glaring omission from the process and an obstacle bigger than Megatron. (My daughter took me to the new Transformers movie yesterday so I couldn’t resist.) Oh, I know what the supervisor, company president, committee chairman, Mayor or other grand pooh-bah in charge will say. “We’ll all have to just work a little harder, but it will be worth it. If everyone gives 110% we can make these changes happen.”

Gag me with a spoon. Let’s just ignore the fact that 110% is impossible in that stupid cliche. The real insult is that this attitude supposes that everyone is currently slacking off and adding new ideas and responsibilities won’t really pose a problem. There’s a real morale booster. Now if the PIC (person-in-charge) is talking about adding staff to handle the new stuff that’s a different story…a story we don’t usually hear, especially in challenging economic times. (And they are ‘always’ challenging economic times.)

So what do organizations that want to try new things without adding staff do to deal with this obstacle? Here’s one suggestion that is usually overlooked. Call it the Two-Thirds Rule for Innovative Success. At the beginning of each planning period every organization should conduct a complete evaluation of current activities and rank the effectiveness and importance of each to the organization using the mission statement as the ultimate measuring tool. (You do have a mission statement, don’t you? If you have to dust off a copy or send someone to find one you have problems not addressed in this post.)

Once you have these activities/tasks ranked, draw a line two-thirds of the way down the list. Everything below that line is expendable. They can, and probably SHOULD, go away. Spend your valuable time and resources on things that make up the top two-thirds of your list and then spend time developing and implementing new ideas that will keep your company, community or organization fresh, exciting and growing.

Here’s an innovative thought. Recognize that change and new ideas can’t be implemented until you make room on the plate!