{"id":663,"date":"2017-07-27T15:07:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T19:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/industry\/2017\/07\/27\/the-aha-moment-find-your-next-great-idea\/"},"modified":"2017-07-27T15:07:44","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T19:07:44","slug":"the-aha-moment-find-your-next-great-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/uncategorized\/2017\/07\/27\/the-aha-moment-find-your-next-great-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"The Aha Moment: Find Your Next Great Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you had your eureka moment?<\/p>\n<p>Successful businesses have one thing in common \u2013 they began as great ideas. Some were so simple making people wonder why they hadn\u2019t thought of it themselves and others so profound leaving people in awe of how the idea was conceived.<\/p>\n<p>Fabulous ideas don\u2019t always come easy. In fact, many people wonder how the inspiration is conceived, and better yet how to replicate that inspiration of innovation. What\u2019s the secret? The next big idea is out there \u2026 so how do you spot it?<\/p>\n<h2>Solve problems<\/h2>\n<p>Ideas often stem from a problem that needs to be solved. Sometimes it\u2019s one of your own problems, and other times it\u2019s someone else\u2019s. Look around and identify issues or inefficiencies that are visible. Think about how they would work in an \u2018ideal world\u2019 and what you would need to do to make that happen. Brainstorm and jot down all these ideas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Look for trouble<\/strong>. What is irritating and annoying to people is potentially a goldmine idea that you want to explore. When you realize that frustrations are ideas in the making, you spark your creative side and allow for the fun to begin: innovation! Questioning everything you do will help you to <em>recognize where improvements can be made<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>Listen first, stop talking<\/h2>\n<p>Learn to listen. Listening to understand, not just waiting for your turn in the conversation, is crucial. This is your opportunity to learn and grow. Find out what people want and need, and most importantly find out why. If you\u2019re not listening and understanding why, chances are you\u2019re never going to come up with a solution to their problems. It\u2019s important to <strong>listen to:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Your customers<\/em> \u2013 they\u2019ll tell you what you need to improve and what you need to innovate<\/li>\n<li><em>Your employees<\/em> \u2013 they\u2019ll give you feedback related to improvements to your business processes<\/li>\n<li><em>Your competitors \u2013 <\/em>what they\u2019re doing\/saying can form future strategic decisions on innovation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Collaborate to innovate<\/h2>\n<p>Tap into the ideas and expertise of all your coworkers. Your company has countless combinations of thinking and behaviour as well as other traditional elements of diversity such as age, gender and experience.\u00a0 Collaborating to create better ideas allows you to use these differences to learn and grow from one another.<\/p>\n<p>Staying competitive in today\u2019s fast-paced world means that organizations must foster a culture of innovation from within.<\/p>\n<h2>Breathe life into your idea<\/h2>\n<p>When you have a great idea on your hands you can feel it. It keeps you up at night and gets you out of bed in the morning. But without proper execution, your idea has zero value. <a href=\"http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/F\/5\/3\/F53B8B72-4D01-4DE1-B6EA-FC178EB553CF\/ms_1955_services_whitepaper_Final.pdf\">Learn more<\/a> about the real value of innovation and find out how Microsoft Services can help you innovate.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/microsoft-canada\/the-accelerate-podcast-ep-7-ideas\">Listen here<\/a> to learn more on how ideas play an important role in every innovation program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Successful businesses have one thing in common \u2013 they began as great ideas. Some were so simple making people wonder why they hadn\u2019t thought of it themselves and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":1456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"post_tag":[213],"content-type":[],"coauthors":[180],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-horizontal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Aha Moment: Find Your Next Great Idea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/uncategorized\/2017\/07\/27\/the-aha-moment-find-your-next-great-idea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Aha Moment: Find Your Next Great Idea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Successful businesses have one thing in common \u2013 they began as great ideas. 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