TO Celebrate 3300th Blog Posting: Flipping Innovation Storybook to the Next Level with Digital Imperative

Being innovative is a state of mind, which is more important than doing any type of innovation.

Innovation is a dynamic storybook that has intricate chapters, with serendipitous cover, it is the time to celebrate the #3300 blog posting of the “Future of CIO” blog, to envision, imagine, inspire, brainstorm, co-write the dynamic digital innovation storybook that never ends. It is the time to flip it over to the new page - expanding digital innovation ecosystem with the imperative.

Creativity is #1 wanted skill in the digital era, and innovation is the key business differentiator: At present days, we cannot separate knowledge and creativity if we want to stay competitive in the business or accelerate digital journey either at the individual or organizational level . Creativity has just become indispensable. ‘Creativity’ is a precursor to knowledge in many ways, because commodity knowledge is only a click away, and creativity is the high level thinking. Innovation has risen as the key differentiating value for a company to gain business competency. Through creativity (imagining, associating, experimenting, testing the hypothesis, failing, entreating, improving), new knowledge is developed. If creativity is an innate process to create novel ideas, innovation is utilizing what you already have in a unique and creative way that has not been done before and using that thing to achieve its commercial value. Innovation can be iterative, evolutionary, revolutionary, or disruptive, but it must be marketable and implementable. It is not just new design or invention, it is taking that invention, tuning it, tweaking it, changing it in a way that the inventor didn't see and making the customers say "wow, that's cool." At the individual level, being innovative is about having a growth mindset, keeping fresh eyes, exploring new opportunities, challenging the status quo, and discovering the better way to do things.

Being innovative is a state of mind, which is more important than doing any type of innovation: Innovation should start from a deep research of people’s concerns, needs, and frustrations. Being able to engage in the successful creation of innovations is a very hard work and does include a lot of thinking, observation, inquiries, unusual connections, experimenting, skills and abilities as well as processes and theories. Innovation comes with the increased knowledge and understanding of facts. Knowledge and practices are relevant to innovation; doing more results in more opportunity for innovation. Flexing creativity mental muscles, and gaining a comprehensive understanding of the "innovation" is critical, people who engage in those activities should understand what they do and those who talk about it should understand what they talking about. You never know how innovative you might be in some field before encountering the problems and before the adoption of solutions. Innovators are often the individuals that are so passionate about what they are doing, that they live it on their own time, and they can focus better on what they are doing by diminishing distraction. If that kind of employee is working for you; not only do you have assurance, you are getting value for the compensation you are spending, you cannot help but get better results.

Collective Creativity: Being creative is the kind to "think outside the box" for ideas and solutions. But the creative spark does not always originate solely in the individual. In that manner, you could say there is more collective creativity happening everywhere. Digital is the age of innovation and collaboration. More often than not, innovation is a teamwork, and collective creativity helps overcome many common challenges facing in the human society. Innovation leaders should understand that collective creativity can manifest in a collective environment, inspire your employees to pursue three “P”s - passion, purpose and potential; and three “C”s - communication, context, and collaboration. Recognize that many small innovations will collectively outweigh one or few large innovations. There will be ups and downs along the way and you need the resilience to make the trip to completion.

Creativity is not always accidental - don’t wait for that spectacular “Eureka Moment,” but proactively practicing to reach it; innovation is not serendipitous, but often in the dark, take a structural approach to unmystified it. Both individuals and organizations just have to practice, practice, and practice more, ride above the learning curve, continue to pursue the special “Aha moment” for creativity and spin the magic circle of innovation.

Posted in: Food for Thought,Innovation,Sum UP