“The Third “Eye” © Roger La Salle
Too Close to see the business
Often those of us involved in business are simply too close to daily issues to see the potential for real value adding innovations and opportunities or indeed to appreciate some of the things our businesses and people do really well.
Even in the case of business plans, which seldom play-out as forecast, the so called independent “third eye” to review the plan before it is finalised is always a good idea.
The transfer “catalyst” of the “Opportunity Matrix” thinking platform asks us to see if we can transfer this so called “third eye” used on business plans to other aspects of our business.
Following this idea we may implement a formal “third eye” across the business on a periodic basis.
“The Third “Eye” innovation initiative.
Network with a group of your peers and allow them a tour of your facility to review in their own minds what you are doing and how you go about your business.
This does not have to be limited to just the physical or operational aspects of your business but can include your telephone answering technique, your staff presentation and manner, your business card presentation, your signage and even the overall presentation of your facility.
For example, would you prefer to attend a dentist or a restaurant whose premises were beautifully maintained with lovely gardens as you enter, or instead one where the gardens were a mangled mess with absolutely no interest in presentation at all being shown by the business operator?
Obviously, the clean and beautiful presented premise inspires confidence.
With your network now briefed conduct a tour of your business and ask each person to take a note pad with them and write down three things that they individually observe that you do really well.
Also ask them to write down three things that they believe are lacking or need attention and can be done better.
Thus we now have 3 plus 3 innovation initiatives we can explore in an endeavour to innovate or improve our business.
The cost is nothing
A “Third Eye” tour need only take a few minutes and will provide invaluable third party or “independent third eye” insights. More importantly it will assist in identifying your strengths and weaknesses.
This simple third eye can be a real innovation eye opener and can be done at no cost at all.
Roger La Salle, is the creator of the “Matrix Thinking”™ technique and is widely sought after as an international speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development. He is the author of four books, Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australian and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. Matrix Thinking is now used in more than 26 countries and licensed to Deloitte, one of the world’s largest consulting firms. www.matrixthinking.com
