Most of the time, organizations are faced with challenges and need innovative ideas to fix them. And if you are innovative, you must be able to diagnose the problem very well. According to the Harvard Business Review article, if you own storied building and one of the biggest challenges raised by the tenants is a slow lift. So, you will think of many solutions of how to fix the lift. Your solution space is install a new lift or configure the algorithms to make it faster or both.

However, that way, you could be thinking within a narrow frame of the direct problem. This intends to constrain your innovative capacity. You need to discover and try to get out of the direct problem. Research and figure out what exactly is the bigger problem?

Look at the problem. How can you expand it? If you do that, you will become a leader others want to follow.

In this case, you might find the problem isn’t actually a slow lift. It could be that people are complaining that the wait at the lift is too long. If they are impatient, consider installing a mirror at the entrance door or inside the lift. In this case, somebody can take some time looking at their appearance and organizing themselves. By doing so, the wait reduces.

In the lift itself, you could put music or a short video so that youtake the mind of the person. They don’t wait for too long anymore! Most of the time, the problem you think you are facing is actually not the real one. Trying to look at it differently, could give you an innovative mind frame.

Look at the problem. How can you expand it? If you do that, you will become a leader others want to follow.