Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Innovative Influence

Cultivating creativity takes fresh insight and an interdisciplinary approach. 

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here is no doubt we live in the digital era with abundant information, advanced technology, and the rapid speed of change. Innovation is not “nice to have,” but “must have” differentiated competency. High-innovative individuals shape creative mindsets, discover the unknown, and explore emerging possibilities. High-innovative organizations usually have lightweight processes that allow creativity to flow, get protected, channeled, and nurtured, and would become more successful than the organizations that do not have such a process.

Shape creative mindset: Being innovative is a state of mind. It is clear that creativity, in general, can be enhanced. Creative intelligence can be developed via learning, questioning, experimenting, and interacting. To develop creativity, demonstrate intellectual curiosity to ask “why,” “why-not,” questions, break down the old box of thinking, and rejuvenate your mind with fresh knowledge. Make a commitment to observe, learn, and understand the circumstance deeply, willingly share ideas, and participate in creative activities.

It’s critical to wear a “down to earth” attitude and be confident and humble at the same time. Empty your mind about how things are "usually" solved, practice deep listening skills, and become more open-minded to embrace the different points of view to shape fresh insight and develop creative wisdom.

Keep discovering the unknown: Innovation is all about discovering fresh ideas or discovering new ways to do things. Discovery is a process of revealing unknown facts. Discovery is realizing something that has not been known to you or known only as a concept but now is alive to you. The more you read and learn, the more you will realize that there is more you don’t know yet, so you have to keep discovering. That means the more knowledgeable you are, the better opportunities you could discovering something unknown in a subject matter, or through an interdisciplinary angle.

Being innovative is a balance between what you know and not letting what you know hinder you in the discovery of innovative solutions. Every meaningful discovery must be supported by sound rational and logical certainty that can be accepted. So make room for people to discover their own insights; or give room for their perspectives to emerge; then practice critical thinking to filter ideas; and leverage collective wisdom to figure out innovative solutions.

Continually explore emerging possibilities: Innovation is an exploration of value-added novelty. The key factor to the innovation paradigm shift has been the endless self-exploration and self-renewal in intellectual, emotional, or spiritual dimensions that need to co-evolve together. It takes courage, motivation, discipline, and persistence to get out of your comfort zone, drive changes, and explore the “art of possibilities.” Innovation leaders and managers should play a significant role as potential explorers; and restructure the organizational flowchart to keep ideas fluid and unleash innovation potential.

Innovative people capture unique insight by asking the right questions and are open to varying answers. They challenge the “we always do things like that” mentality and explore the art of possible. In innovative organizations, there is the right dose of creative tension and healthy competition to spark innovation; they can cultivate an inclusive culture, so people having cognitive differences, diverse backgrounds, and complementary knowledge can work collaboratively to come up with innovative solutions. Innovation leaders understand where and how they can and should improve to get the biggest effect and scale up across the business ecosystem effortlessly.

The hyperconnected and interdependent world is complex, to deal with tough situations and thorny issues, it's important to gain an in-depth understanding of cross-boundary issues and have interdisciplinary knowledge to connect the dots for sparking innovation. Developing creativity takes fresh insight and an interdisciplinary approach. People cannot be good at being analytical without creativity; also, they cannot increase creative intelligence without continuously learning new knowledge, interpreting varying meanings, analyzing information, recognizing useful patterns, and spurring ideas relentlessly.

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