By far, my favorite part of my job is collaborating to create interesting ways to serve my audience. A standout example was bolstered by my friend Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights earlier this summer as he shared great insights that all ag retailers can use to inject innovation into their businesses.
Click here to apply for The Scoop’s Business Innovation Award
He frames innovation with this definition: innovation can be processes, or it can be ways of delivering services.
Mindset is key for innovation. During a 30-minute webinar, which is now available on demand, Thomas presented five mental models ag retailers can use to augment their innovation strategies.
- Embrace complexity
- Expand your time horizons
- Convergence
- Second-order implications
- Always be capturing complexity
Pulling from his list of “mental hacks,” Thomas says of these principles, “They act as a constant reminder to help improve my output, relationship building, critical thinking, professional development and ability to be disciplined when I want to take the easy route.”
Take a bit of a break from your everyday routine and everyday thinking.
Tune in to learn how these principles have real-world applications in ag retail and could result in more innovation and bigger business.
“To innovate takes time, and it takes effort,” Thomas says.
