Sunday, February 20, 2022

Unconventional Innovation

Isn't it a tough journey to write 8700 blog postings - to pursue the digital way of brainstorming, innovating and story-telling? Blogging is a type of thought flow, energy glow; it is the flow that casts its glow, sparkling a radiance all around. Blogging is for growth and sharing. Blogging is not about writing, but about brainstorming, innovating, and problem-solving.


The world has become much more complex and smaller all at once. Growth is not possible unless people are willing to move out of their comfort zone, be open to new perspectives. It is often true that unless there is a disruption, people very rarely move out of their comfort zones. 

You cannot wait for something to happen, keep curious, always think profoundly, learn new things, and acquire new capabilities. Innovators present creatively disruptive traits, present unconventional wisdom, disrupt old ways, and inspire better ways to do things.

Unseen potential: Innovation is to see the substance of things unseen; unseen is complex until it is known. Once known, it becomes simple. To be innovative is to transform the single thread into a beautiful garment, words to poetry, trip to an adventure, ideas expanded to creative solutions. Innovation is the bridge between science and art. Art is about visualizing unseen, abstract and envision; science is about simplifying complex things via experimenting, inference & deference, etc.

Innovation is the management process to implement ideas. Innovation has a considerably high ratio to fail compared to other types of business initiatives because there is no “one size fits all” formula, and there are various parameters that you need to make adjustments. There is a process to decode the unseen, and the unseen is always complex because it is not known and it implies risks. There are both cognition and emotion involved, hard and soft elements in forming potentiality development or innovation management formulas. Innovation often happens at the intersection of people and processes. The science of innovation management is to use efficient technologies and tools, take a structural approach to detect the right spot to innovate, and explore it in the right way.

Unleashed energy:
Many traditional command-control working environments across industries are static and tedious, lacking creative energy or innovator’s spirit. Because people are afraid of being themselves and saying anything which might cause conflicts; the management perceives innovators as sort of “trouble-maker.” As the matter of fact, there are multidimensional thought processes or a full cycle of emotion that simulates innovation. Our mind evolves different dimensions of thinking, the multitude of thought processes and emotions creates a kind of vibration around us. That enthusiasm, energy, and optimism stimulate creativity

Potential can be unleashed via releasing creative energy, discovering the innate strength and setting disciplines to develop innovativeness as a state of mind, build cohesive skills and capabilities. If you have a stable and strong cognitive process, conflict can stimulate transcendent energy to catalyze creativity. It can further lead to open-minded discussions for alternative problem-solving. When we keep our minds flowing, release the positive energy, out of this comes a beautiful thing, the plenty seeds of creativity by being authentic to explore who we are as well as being resourceful to continue learning, growing and mature.

Unimaginable colors: Every person or organization is unique, with their set of character, perception, personality color themes. To discover unimaginable characteristics of people, you need to look at all aspects of their individual traits, work ethic, influence, creativity, experience, capability, achievements and performance, as well as the hidden potential.

In order to develop creative talent and build an innovative organization, the management needs to have wise eyes to discover raw intelligence and innovative types by paying more attention to those shining spots: Who can generate fresh ideas, bring unique insight; who can find alternative ways to solve problems; who has the courage to debate with good intention, who is unconventionally different, who is a progressive cultural influencer, etc, if given the opportunity to excel within the work environment. In essence, people are the center of innovation, all forward-looking organizations or societies intend to become more information-savvy, people-centric, and purpose oriented to advance humanity.

Uncompromised substances:
The substance of leadership is to set the right direction and make progressive changes. The substance of running a successful business is to solve critical problems strategically or tactically. The substance of innovation is to implement fresh ideas or figure out alternative solutions. In order to drive necessary change, people need to hold on to their common belief, and pull in the same directions. The more stakeholders can impact a change seriously; the better chance the change will achieve or exceed the business expectations.

When innovating to create new value, position a brand, differentiate and position products or services in diverse markets, high mature organizations can get a clear and uncompromised place void of irrelevant complexity, analogy, and noise, the greater businesses’ ability to execute with a predictive pathway and increase go-to-market confidence, build a distinguished set of business capabilities to execute the strategy with a predictive pathway.

Unconventional wisdom: The conventional mind is bound by certain group beliefs and general practices, some of them perhaps outdated as our society continues changing and innovating. In specific, conventional wisdom has a negative connotation about sticking to the outdated concepts, traditions, cultures, or the old ways to do things; Unconventional wisdom is in strong demand as it often means fresh insight or “out-of-the-box” thinking to spur creativity.

It takes courage and mental toughness to break through conventional wisdom. It takes persistence and determination to practice unconventional thinking. Either conventional or unconventional thinking, the true wisdom leads to putting more thoughts in searching for fresh ideas and widens the possibility of coming up with alternative solutions. An innovator demonstrates unconventional wisdom, sees things differently, connects usual dots, and does things in a different way. Business leaders today should inspire, empower employees and mentor them with unconventional wisdom to unlock creativity and harness innovation.

Digitalization and globalization happening at a greater pace has resulted in moving from knowledge economy to creative economy very quickly without going through the traditional organizational transitions. To be the innovator of tomorrow, people or businesses have to keep learning – from unlearning to relearning, updating their mindsets, knowledge, methodology, and approaches, presenting a unique set of competencies, creating alternative ways of working; mentors and coaching others relentlessly, becoming goal-driven to solve problems innovatively.

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