Learn from othrr Disciplnes

Someone once told me if you want innovation in engineering, don’t ask an engineer.  They’ll give you accepted (and workable) engineering solutions but they won’t give you groundbreaking, innovative or creative solutions.

What you need is to ask a non-engineer to give you ideas for new ways of addressing your problem - and then ask an engineer how to make those ideas work.  Together they  might produce an innovative - but still workable - solution.

This ‘principle’ (of asking those outside of the current field of knowledge) can pay dividends in many situations.

Similarly, ideas which seem intuitive and obvious often limit your spread of thinking and your range of ideas.  They are obvious often because they are well-established and entirely logical.

So you have to force yourself out of the straitjacket of accepted wisdom and current technologies. 

Build a multi-disciplined team snd let them play ideas off against each other.  Encourage them to think freely and give them training in creative thinking techniques.

You have nothing to lose except your boundaries!