When COVID-19 hit, we watched as many businesses simplified their transformation efforts. Hospitals built ventilators out of parts from their local hardware stores. Construction interfaces adapted their artificial intelligence to ensure crews were following social distancing guidelines. Businesses across all industries began to stretch and find new ways to use existing resources to maintain and improve their operations under a new world order.

 

Transformation, especially in the face of challenges, will not always be a result of new creation. Sometimes, change is born out of a tried-and-true strategy, providing the time and space needed until a business can forge ahead through innovation once more.

 

Related Content: From face shields to tradeshow panels, see how businesses innovated and transformed in the midst of the pandemic.

 

Go back to the basics

We’ve been watching as innovators simplify their operations during COVID-19. For example, members of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover were left to operate the rover from the safety of their homes following safer-at-home orders. While the team was accustomed to using advanced equipment to navigate the rover over Mars’s terrain, they continued their work with a little help from a 1960s creation: red and blue film glasses, similar to those used to watch 3D movies.

 

Seek sustainability

As wildfires threaten the people and land of California, the government is beginning to discuss bringing back methods that originated centuries ago within California’s Indigenous tribes. Rather than focusing on suppressing and extinguishing fires, this approach would instead introduce controlled burns, similar to the cultural burnings performed by the local tribes before law prohibited such ceremonies. Partnerships with local tribes will help inform this strategy as the government looks to return to historical methods of fire prevention.

 

Related Content: These five areas will help changemakers emphasize recent successes, eliminate unsustainable or outdated practices and prioritize values in 2021.

 

Repurpose and revitalize

Followers of Disney have recently drawn attention to the fact that several of the company’s older films reused animated scenes between movies — a technique called rotoscoping. According to the animators who worked on these films, this strategy helped ensure that the scenes would meet help them meet deadlines and expectations when under extreme pressure.

 

Whether you are looking for ways to reopen as the world slowly emerges from the pandemic, or are looking to take calculated steps forward, consider these questions:

  • What strategies have you used in the past with great success? Can you repurpose them to meet new expectations and goals?

  • What solutions have you used in the past with minimal success? Is there a way to revisit and improve that strategy to help you accomplish your current goals?

  • What resources do you currently have that are underutilized? How can you repurpose them to your advantage?

 

While innovation is responsible for bringing the world new ideas, products and systems, the value of a strong foundation will always be a critical piece of any organization. By relying on where a brand has been, innovators can use lessons learned as building blocks to get where they want to go next.

 

Is your organization looking to relaunch or redefine itself?

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