It's planning season. And around here, real planning begins byimagining what is possible rather than focusing on the incremental.Earning the leading market share in your category is possible;squeaking out a couple points of growth is incremental. Butachieving what is possible often requires us to do things better,smarter and differently. In other words, it requiresinnovation.

I was thrilled when I recently met Stephen Shapiro, author of“Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate theCompetition.” What resonated with me was Steve's view thatexpertise is the enemy of creativity. The theory is simple: Themore familiarity you have with a particular topic, the less likelyyou are to create a breakthrough in innovation because your brainis pre-programmed by your knowledge and experiences to findfamiliar solutions. If we ask the right questions, more often thannot we'll find that smart companies in other disciplines haveanswered them. Some examples:

How can we create an insurance-shopping experience thatpeople enjoy and tell their friends about? Instead ofstudying the direct writer with the latest online shopping gizmo,look at Trunk Club—a firm that targets a demographic that,typically, despises the traditional notion of shopping forclothing: men.