How to Spot your Innovators?

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

Creativity is an essential building block for innovation in business. And innovation is the light every business is pursuing. Everyone possesses a certain level of creativity, but how does creativity manifest itself in the workplace? What's the best work environment to stimulate creativity? And how can digital leaders spot their true innovators and improve innovation success rate?

Think differently: Being a digital innovator means you need to break down the silo thinking, breakthrough conventional wisdom and challenge the status quo. Being innovative is less about thinking alike, more about thinking differently, to ignite creativity and bridge blind spots in decision-making. Creativity is a multidimensional thought process, higher level thinking, and often multidisciplinary association. Innovators have abilities to connect unusual dots to stimulate creativity. Innovators do not just reactively wait for the "Eureka" moment, they have insight and transdisciplinarity to think and work across discipline and discover better solutions to complex problems. They can shape a bigger box of thinking, think outside of the company, industry and even societal impacts. They can ask open questions, identify blind spots or mind gaps, in order to identify the issues behind the scenes. Thus, spot your innovators based on how they think, their inquisitiveness, their ability to connect the dots, and their learning agility,

Break the rules: As the old saying goes, “you can’t make the omelet without breaking a few eggs.” Innovation is all about breaking the old way and search for better ways to do things. Innovators are rebels, and rule breakers, the one who can step out of a conventional thinking box, or linear patterns. Innovators are not just fresh thinkers, but also creative problem-solvers. Though at the traditional organizational setting, innovators are often perceived as troublemakers. Being perceived as the troublemaker is not a bad thing when it comes to innovation. Since being innovative is a state of mind which disrupts legacy thinking or the old way to do things. True innovation always spurs certain disruptions otherwise it is not innovation. Thus, organizations should appreciate their innovators because they can lift the business out of the stagnation and lift the company toward the next level of the growth cycle. Still, it doesn't mean that innovators are "ruleless." Breaking outdated rules is an integral part of innovation, replace the operative word “rules” with principles that allow thinking room, and set guidelines to keep enforcing innovation and making progress.

Play the odds: Innovators are the rare breed who not only think but also do things differently. Spotting and scoring individual as an innovator needs to focus on individual capabilities and potential to innovate. Business evolution requires innovation, innovation requires fresh ideas, and fresh ideas require Mavericks. Innovators play the odd which involves both opportunities and risks. Creativity relates to intelligence, empathy, idealism, process understanding. Hence, businesses today should spot and recognize their innovators who can rise above the status quo and take on a new set of activities that have them involved in the strategy development process, and maximize the full potential of the digital organization.

Innovators are among us and within us, spot them via how they think and do things differently. Empower them to build the culture of innovation. Encourage people to be creative, foster a creative environment in which people can unlock their creativity, build creative teams that can bring all sorts of strengths and capabilities together to amplify creativity effect and run a highly innovative organization.

Posted in: Creativity,Innovation,Talent Master