TOP 10 OBJECTIONS TO CREATIVITY & INNOVATION, by Gerald Haman

"Objections are expressions of interest," said Zig Ziglar.

If people do NOT object to your creative idea, they may NOT be engaged enough to think about your ideas. Successful innovators appreciate objections because they demonstrate that people are engaged in thinking about proposed ideas.

If you get no objections, you may not have much engagement. Successful innovators also "anticipate" potential objections and prepare responses to those objections in advance.

According to Gerald Haman, founder & president of Solutionpeople, the '10 Most Common Objections' are easy to anticipate. You've heard them before, and here is his list:

Objection #1-PRICE

“We don’t have a budget for this”
“Your competition is cheaper”

Objection #2-TIME

“The timing isn’t very good”
“Let’s discuss this later”

Objection #3-INTEREST

“I’ll get back to you if I’m interested”
“You’ll need to talk to somebody else”

Objection #4-NEED

“I don’t need it”
“My situation is different”

Objection #5-RISK

“It’s too risky”
“My reputation is on the line”

Objection #6-CHANGE

“I don’t need to change”
“The change may not be an improvement”

Objection #7-QUALITY

“It won’t work”
“The quality is poor”

Objection #8-IMAGE

“It doesn’t fit our image”
“We do things differently around here”

Objection #9-TRUST

“I need to think it over”
“I want to do some more research”

Objection #10-APPROVAL

“I want to talk to some other people”
“I need some more information”

As an exercise, Describe How You or Others Might or Should Address these Objections.

You can download a FREE "Objection Anticipation" Worksheet created by Gerald Haman that includes Zig Ziglar's quote by clicking HERE.

[Gerald Haman is also the creator of the pocket innovation tool known as 'Knowbrainer', which is the precursor to the earlier version known as 'Pocket Innovator'. During the early nineties, the 'Pocket Innovator' was sold at my retail store.]

MAKING DISTINCTIONS: CREATIVITY vs INNOVATION IV

[continued from the Last Post.]

I take this opportunity to share the following easy-to-understand definitions from Gerald Haman, the creative brain behind the award-winning KnowBrainer & innovation tools:

[He is also the founder of SolutionPeople®, developer of the Chicago Thinkubator®, adjunct professor of innovation at Northwestern University, editor of InnovatorsDigest.com and creator of the InnovationToolofTheMonthClub.com. He is recognized by clients as “Solutionman”, because of his ability to quickly help people develop breakthrough solutions.]

"CREATIVITY

is developing

new, interesting, or different

IDEAS"

"INNOVATION

is the process of transforming creative ideas into

valuable or profitable

SOLUTIONS"

Creative Ideas Provide Energy for Innovative Solutions!

It appears that many people are more comfortable talking about innovation than creativity. Their discomfort in talking about creativity may be rooted in the perception that that creativity is just fun and games. However, creativity is necessary for innovation to occur.

Creative thinking yields the ideas that fill the pipeline of innovation. Innovation cannot happen without the energy generated by creativity.

Haman's definition also has makes a subtle, yet important distinction between IDEAS and SOLUTIONS.

Creativity produces the ideas and once they yield value or profit, they become solutions.

Below is Haman's other "creative" definition to help people define the relationship between creativity and innovation.

"Innovation is how people make money

or create value from creativity"

[to be continued in the Next Post.

Way back in the nineties, I had used the Pocket Innovator, the precursor to the KnowBrainer innovation tool, from Gerald Haman. In fact, I was also one of his retailers in this part of the world during that period. Naturally, I also own the first generation of the KnowBrainer, in addition to The Persuasive Advantage, a creative marketing planning tool.]