5 things innovative firms do intentionally

Many firm leaders are asking the same question:

How do we differentiate ourselves to enable sustainable growth?

The answer isn’t more effort.

It’s creating environments that encourage new thinking—spaces where bold ideas challenge the status quo and lead to meaningful change.

That’s how you BREAK THE MOLD™.

I’m often seen as a progressive leader, but I don’t believe everything needs to be reinvented. Contrary to what some people might think, I don't wake up assuming everything is broken and needs to be fixed...

What I do believe is this: what got us here won’t get us there.

When you intentionally create the time, space, and environments to think differently, bold solutions emerge—and innovation results.

Innovation isn’t an action.

It’s the result of consistent, intentional choices.

Here are five things every firm must prioritize to foster environments that lead to innovation—and truly BREAK THE MOLD™:

1. Be intentional with your time.

Bold ideas that lead to innovation require leaders to put themselves in the right environments and situations.

• Give yourself quiet time. You have to be intentional about building time into your schedule to reflect, problem solve, and think strategically. Even when I'd travel internationally, I'd make sure I got a workout as soon as I landed because that was my way of continuing my process and much needed dedicated quiet time to think. Diving right in after a long journey is unwise. Figure out what that time looks like for you and build it in as a non-negotiable.

• Get to the balcony. The dance floor is the here and now—it represents the things that are right in front of you. The balcony is the future—it represents thinking strategically to achieve differentiated results. Your inbox is the dance floor, the firm's future is the balcony.

• Slow down to speed up. So often, we immediately jump from "we have a problem" to implementing the quickest solution. Slow down. Sit with the problem. Examine it from multiple angles and don't jump at the first potential solution—you may speed up the path to your desired results in the long run.

2. Be intentional with the questions you ask.

Innovation starts by challenging the status quo, and that requires better questions.

• What will it take? Start asking "what will it take?" to achieve your strategy or solve a client’s problem. This question forces action-oriented thinking and uncovers practical paths forward while a question like "Can we do this?" leads to binary answers.

• What do we stand to gain if we make this work? Instead of focusing on risks, shift the focus to the upside—what new growth, efficiency, or opportunities will this enable? Costs are easy to identify, but what about the opportunity cost of not pursuing something?

• Are we sure this is the optimal way? Good enough isn't good enough when aggressive growth is the goal. When you consistently seek to prove the way you are doing things is optimal, you're bound to come up with ideas to make improvements.

3. Be intentional with your approach to generating new ideas.

If you’re trying to innovate within the constraints of “how it’s always been done,” you’re already limiting yourself. Human nature suggests we're pretty ineffective at seeing past roadblocks or beyond what's right in front of us.

• Start with a blank whiteboard. Erase existing processes, egos, obstacles, and assumptions. Imagine designing your business model from scratch—what would you do differently? That's a good indicator of the ideal path forward.

• Introduce the “yeah, buts” later. Allow your team to think big and focus on possibilities before introducing constraints. It doesn't mean they should be ignored, but you have to allow space for creativity before they're added back in.

4. Be intentional with the perspectives you bring to the table.

The best ideas come from diverse viewpoints.

• Diversify your team. This isn’t just about demographics—it’s about skill sets, career backgrounds, and ways of thinking. I have a theory that leadership teams can go stale... like Liz Wiseman talks about in her book, Rookie Smarts, sometimes injecting a fresh perspective can lead to differentiated thinking.

• Include outside perspectives. Be willing to look outside your four walls. Frankly, this is something I wish I did more as a CEO. Look to businesses outside your industry or seek external advisors who will challenge ingrained beliefs and offer fresh insights.

5. Be intentional about viewing your firm through a new lens.

Human nature is partial to the comfortable, familiar things we've grown accustomed to. Innovation results from thinking about things through a different lens.

• Think outside-in. Take the eyes of an alien or put yourself in your client's shoes—how can you better provide service that enables your clients to achieve their goals? That should be reflected in your strategy, messaging, and communication.

• Go upstream. Don't take friction points at face value. Be willing to go upstream to uncover the hidden reasons why problems might be surfacing in your organization. It's amazing what asking "Why?" a few times can do to identify underlying causes that need to be addressed.

Breaking the Mold™ in Action

The firms that succeed in staying relevant and sustainable are the ones that successfully run the business and transform it at the same time.

Transformation requires new thinking and bold ideas that lead to innovation.

Your job, as a leader, is to be intentional about creating the environments to facilitate different thinking, which will lead to different, and likely better, results.

Innovation is a result, not an action.

Do these things successfully and, well, that's how you BREAK THE MOLD™.

That's it for this week.

With intention,
Alan D Whitman