Monday, June 25, 2018

The Five Perspectives on Innovators

Innovators are among us and within us, spot them by how they think and do things differently. 

Either for individuals or businesses, creativity is a long-term endeavor. It must be cultivated. Why can innovators find more view spots than others? Why can innovators think differently and connect unusual dots effortlessly? What fuels creativity? Creativity is a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Here are some perspectives on being innovative.


Perception: Perception is one’s interpretation of reality. Perception is based on one’s thought processes which are influenced by one’s thinking style, cognitive understanding, and knowledge level. A perceptive mind is subjective but can be open enough to embrace other minds' perception. Having a learning attitude allows you to become more positive and gives you the energy to overcome obstacles and practice creativity frequently. How we wish to impact the world creatively has to be in alignment with our perception - With an ever-changing world, it is important to consciously update perceptions for things you are not sure or people you do not know well, the purpose is to the make appropriate adjustments and lead change creatively.

Plasticity: Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity refers to the life­long capac­ity of the brain to change and rewire itself in response to the stim­u­la­tion of learn­ing and expe­ri­ence. In neuronal terms, this involves disabling some of the “wiring” and working on the new ones. All of that requires a deliberate mental effort. The cognition involves exploring varieties of meanings/thoughts, abandoning old connections, and establishing new relations to trigger creativity. A creative mind with plasticity is able to absorb all necessary knowledge and adjust its thinking processes according to changes in its environment, as well as applying the acquired knowledge and lessons to succeed in new situations, to connect wider dots for sparking creativity.

Patten Recognition: Patterns are defined as "solutions of problems in a context" with a body of "descriptions of forces." Pattern thinking is a type of creative thinking because sometimes tie patterns together so you can navigate among them for figuring out alternative solutions. Patterns are containers for describing relationships, pattern thinking is a hybrid thinking to combine designing thinking, architect thinking, system thinking, and visual thinking. To be creative, you need to continue discovering new patterns, so it requires you to keep your eyes open and keep your mind off the box in order to break down the conventional box and actively seek out new ideas wherever you can discover them.

Problem-Solving: Unless there is a problem, there is no creativity. Creativity needs a problem, and a creative person needs a purpose. Being creative is about how to solve a problem intelligently and come up with elegant solutions. Change, creativity, and problem-solving are all interrelated. It takes courage to get out of conventional thinking box, practice creative thinking to come out novel ideas, broaden thoughts and connect wider dots for coming up better solutions. You never know how innovative you might be in some field before encountering the problems and before the adoption of solutions. Creative problem-solvers are able to reframe circumstance or conditions around a problem and solve them in alternative ways. Innovation is all about the madness of solving problems and doing things in a better way.


Personality: When we say personality, we are talking about mindsets/ traits/emotions/attitudes/ behavior. Thinking is the seed that molds and makes one's life. The way we think has much of effect and impact on how we interact with the world. Extroverts can share ideas or thoughts by interacting with others or the environment proactively; Introverts can spend more time pondering and often creativity is nurtured in solitude. Both personality types have a great opportunity to be creative. People are different, we all have different characters, personalities, favorite activities, strengths, and weaknesses. Both introverts and extroverts need to learn how to think profoundly, connect interdisciplinary dots, be open to new experience, and tolerate ambiguity, to stimulate creativity.

Innovators are among us and within us, spot them by how they think and do things differently. Empower them to build a culture of innovation. The world needs more creative thinkers who can handle the ever-increasing complexities and discover the new path for leading digital transformation smoothly.

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