Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor. I'm the founder of Lead Above Noise, a firm

specializing in helping teams and organizations create better working experiences that deliver better

results. One of the best ways for an organization to get ahead, it's innovation. Big or small

product or process, reinventing how we work and what we deliver,

always a winning strategy. And yet, as much as companies love to talk about how innovative they are,

most people within an organization will say, there's often nothing harder than getting buy-in to your idea,

than getting permission and support and resources,

all the stuff you need to power that innovation. This challenge has crossed my desk many times,

and I've coached leaders and teams across various industries on this one. So whether you're

sitting on an idea right now or you hope to launch one in the future, let's talk

about how you can get yours off the page and into the world. First, get clear on your why.

Innovation is never the goal. It's a means to an end. So start by getting people excited about your

end. Like one of my clients, Todd, was the head of finance

for a retail organization, and he developed this snazzy new dashboard that would collate a bunch

of finance data to be delivered to leaders across the business. Todd fell in love with this dashboard.

It was beautiful, it was rich with data, and he just needed some resources

to get it fully built out. He kept showing it to his superiors, but he wasn't having luck,

triggering enthusiasm or support. When he asked for my advice, I told him, you're too focused

on what you love about the innovation. You need to begin with what problem you're actually solving.

So he changed his tune. Within a week, he was showing it to leaders once again, talking not

about its features, but its utility, its value to the business. He explained that business leaders

were making flawed spending choices, on inventory, on vendors, etc., because they didn't understand the full

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