Ep. 182: Tamara Ghandour - Harnessing The Power of Innovation – Everyday

Contact Tamara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/innovationtamaraghandour
What is your innovation type: https://www.gotolaunchstreet.com/innovation-training-programs/whats-your-innovation-type/

Full Episode Transcript:
Adam: (00:05)
Welcome to the Count Me In podcast. I'm your host, Adam Larson. And my guest today is Tamara Ghandour, a leader in the field of human-centric innovation and its pivotal role in helping individuals and businesses create breakthrough outcomes. Tomorrow is the president of launch street, the founder of everyday innovator's tribe, the host of her own podcast and the author of the book. Innovation is everybody's business. She is also the creator of the innovation quotient edge, a powerful tool for determining your unique innovation style. This was a really insightful conversation with great tips for unleashing your innovation potential. So here without further ado is my talk with Tamara Ghandour. So Tamara, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I'm really excited to have you on, and as we talk about innovation today, I wanted to kind of focus in a little bit. so you talk about how innovation is, how you win against the winds of change. So maybe we can start off by talking a little bit more about that.

Tamara: (01:08)
Yeah, Adam, I think first of all, thank you for having me. I think that's a great place to start because it sets the stage for why innovation is so important and how we can leverage it in ourselves to add value and to contribute and to carbon niche out for ourselves. So here's the thing and I I'm sure we can do a whole podcast on everything that's going on, but let me just kind of sum up the winds of change for us. And the reality of the world that we're in. So, you know, we've got COVID which accelerated everything. So we'll just leave that as the blanket statement, but on top of that, right, we've got AI and technology taking over a lot of the base jobs. A lot of the functions that we have been known to do as humans in our roles, things that we're used to doing, but AI and technology can now do a lot of that.

Tamara: (01:50)
So we've got that happening. We've got web 3.0 in the metaverse coming and kind of how that's going to change everything. I just heard about a project where healthcare going on to the metaverse like, it's incredible, what's happening over there. And then on top of that, right, you've got decentralized finance, you've got the great resignation of where is everybody and why can't I find people to hire or keep people, right? You've got that going on as a wind of change. And then we've got a lot of uncertainty with global politics and just the state of the world. So I say all that, and it sounds like a lot of doom and gloom, but let me focus in on where I think actually it adds to a lot of, opportunity, you know, when times are stable, it breeds efficiency, but it also breeds complacency when times are unstable.

Tamara: (02:35)
Like we're in now, it breeds resilience. We've seen a lot of that from all of us in the past couple of years, but also innovation, a chance to change and to innovate. And you know, the thing about being an innovator that I think is so important right now is when you look at all of that, particularly AI and technology, that's doing the baseline of our job. What that actually means. If you look at it in the right way, is that we have the opportunity to do something that is uniquely human, which is that creative problem solving that empathy, that innovation, that strategic thinking. So we actually have the ability right now, more so than ever with everything going on to actually bring those insights, to bring that innovative mind to the table and be that strategic voice that our clients, our leaders, our teams, our customers, that they all need right now. So the uncertainties crazy on one hand yet on the other hand, the winds of change is what allow us to innovate and shift and change and do things in a way that's, that's different and unique to us.

Adam: (03:37)
Hmm. So, you know, you have this concept that you talk about a, bit as about an everyday innovator. So we're talking about innovation with the winds of change. What is that everyday innovator style. And why does it matter when we're trying to have these, when we're trying to sail the winds of change, if you will, 

Tamara: (03:54)
I like the way you said that I'm going to sail the winds. That's a great way to say that. So every day, and being an everyday innovator is so important, but let me kind of back up as to why oftentimes with innovation, we buy into these myths and I see this all the time. I've been in business for 25 years now. And you know, we think it's Suzie down the hall with a purple streak or the Elon Musk and the Steve jobs and the JK Rowling's and maybe the Oprahs of the world, right? Like they're bestowed with something that we don't have, or we think it's for certain times, like the 3:00 PM brainstorm with the SCED markers and the blank eel pads, right. But every other time, just keep your head down and do your job. Or we think that it is, for certain departments, right?

Tamara: (04:34)
Marketing R and D or certain industries, technologies Silicon valley. But that actually is a sliver of what it means to be an innovator. And what I really come to see in my years of experience is that the best innovation comes from the places where you least expect, right? The everyday innovators who are out there rolling up their sleeves, doing their jobs, the best innovation is small. It's big, but it is inside all of us. And, you know, I used to believe that a little bit of those myths too, but we did a lot of research. We dug into the neuroscience and to change principles. And what we actually found out in our research is that we all have the ability to innovate. So we all have the structures in it, right? Neuroscience shows that it's a whole brain experience that MRIs light up when people create a problem, solve strategic thinking, you know, think differently.

Tamara: (05:21)
and our brains are flexible. We can actually get stronger. It's called neuroplasticity, but the way that all comes together and why it's so important is that Adam is you and me in the roles that we do when we bring innovation to the table and what we have right in front of us, we can get incredible impact. We can create those breakthrough outcomes. So, you know, innovation being siloed, just sabotages it for all of us. When we, as everyday innovators, when we understand that about ourselves, when we unleash that about ourselves, that's where we start to see the value and the difference. And we see it in individuals, leaders, and in teams and how they perform as well. It's why we built the assessment to tell people how they innovate, because we wanted people to say, oh, this is how I innovate. Cause I don't know about you, Adam, but I got pretty tired of hearing people go, you need to innovate.

Tamara: (06:08)
And I was like, how? And then I would try to do it the way you did it, but it didn't work for me because you do it in a way that's different than the way I do it. So understanding your everyday innovator style allows you to tap into what's actually already inside of you. All we're asking you to do is amplify what you're already incredible out. Maybe you're not using it. Maybe you've been trained out of it, but you know what? It's a lot easier for me to tomorrow to innovate in the way I innovate then Adam, to try to do you and vice versa. So that's why it's important.

Adam: (06:38)
That makes sense. Now you've said, you've said that anybody can be an innovator and a lot of times you'll get a book by like a Josh Linkner and yo...