You Don't Have To Be A Rocket Scientist To Innovate
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That's because you innovate, anyways.
You just don't know HOW you innovate.
Innovation.
10 to 1 you’re thinking, “I don’t innovate. That’s ‘think tank’ stuff. Other people innovate…not me.”
You’re wrong...dead wrong.
We all innovate.
It’s not about how WELL you innovate...
...or IF you innovate.
It’s not about BEING AS innovative as somebody else.
You innovate. Accept it. You just don't know HOW. There's the rub.
Innovation Styles is about HOW you innovate. It's about knowing your preferences so you can capitalize on them.
We all have our own unique approach to meeting a creative challenge. The trick is knowing HOW you innovate.
After completing the IS Profile, I know how I “innovate.” I know how my colleagues innovate.
That’s neat because, face it…we all “bang heads” at some point with each other. Now we know why we "bang heads." We innovate differently.
Now we get to “bang heads” in a more constructive and creative way. Cool. That just opened the door to create more neat stuff and get on with making the world a better place. Less bickering, more creating.
You can take the Innovation Styles Profile assessment right here...free…no gimmicks, I promise. (Feel free to share it, pass it on, whatever.)
I not only know my own style of innovating (Visioning & Exploring), I have an awareness of the other innovation styles that will generate creative ideas for the challenges I face every day. Again, cool.
So, this past Friday afternoon, my company, which is a partner with IS, spent three hours with it's creator, William Miller.
William is the creative force behind Innovation Styles. He is internationally recognized as an expert and “guru” on creativity and innovation. In the mid-1980's, William was head of the Innovation Management program at the the Stanford Research Institute. In 1987, William started the Global Creativity Corporation.
William has written several books on innovation and creativity including, “Flash of Brilliance” and “The Flash of Brilliance Workbook,"and "The Creative Edge." Today, William is a co-founder of the Global Dharma Center.
The Innovations Styles Profile is a personal self-assessment ‘test’ that shows how you PREFER to innovate through the various “mixes” or styles of innovation.
We all innovate. We all create. We all solve problems and challenges. However, you and I solve them differently. We each have our own preference or style in approaching the same challenges.
But do you know HOW you innovate? Do you know your style? Do you know your team member’s styles? Nope. There’s the gap. That gap is costing you time, money, resources, and who knows what else.
So, imagine integrating different styles of innovating with your team to achieve better outcomes, stronger ideas and more solutions to those challenges your customers and your boss are throwing at you every day. This is cool stuff to have in your pocket when you need it.
Innovation Styles helps optimize your innovativeness. It does it quickly and easily.
OK. Here is the heart of the profile.
Innovation Styles says we have four main ways we approach a creative challenge:
1. Visioning: people who have Visioning profiles like to imagine an ideal future and let long-term goals be their guide--they envision and idealize.
2. Modifying: people who have Modifying profiles like to refine and improve what has already been done-- they refine and optimize.
3. Exploring: people who have Exploring profiles like to question assumptions and discover novel possibilities--they challenge and discover.
4. Experimenting: the people who have Experimenting profiles like to test out various combinations of new ideas and learn from the results--they combine and test.
For example, I innovate through Visioning-Exploring.
And my first impulse when approaching a challenge is to say:
• “Let’s develop a clear sense of purpose and goals to approach this challenge.”
• “Let’s challenge assumptions and see where we end up!”
Ideas that are bold, imaginative, adventurous and unique are what I thrive on.
I can generate these kinds of ideas by asking questions like:
• What is the ideal, long-term solution?
• What assumptions can we challenge?
• What if we started from scratch?
• How can we turn conventional wisdom upside down?
Here is the slick part…
When you start drilling down into this system to study your profile in depth (BTW, you gets LOTS of neat information about ALL the styles), you’ll get a complete set of tools to help you optimize your innovativeness, like:
• What are your most effective ways to engage in innovation?
• How do you contribute to team synergy?
• How can you best generate innovative ideas?
• What do you bring to developing and presenting a proposal?
• What learning opportunities enhance your innovativeness?
• What kinds of assignments energize your innovativeness?
I'll say it again. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to innovate.
But if you innovate consciously, you might, just might, build that rocket.
---Tom
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