THE INNOVATION CYCLE

How much time do you spend every day on:

INERTIA

IMITATION

INSTRUCTION

INNOVATION

As shown, the attributes of innovation are:

INTELLIGENCE ~ we all have it, yet, to paraphrase Howard Gardner: "The issue is not how smart you are, but how are you smart?"

INFORMATION ~ we are assaulted by an avalanche of data, that metamorphose into information, which, after some time, assumes the guise of knowledge, and ultimately, adorns our psyche as wisdom.

INTUITION ~ this is the superlogic of our senses, indisputably vital in idea generation.

IMAGINATION ~ the software of our minds, the offspring of our souls. Who you ‘see’ is who you’ll be.

Yet, considering a typical day in our lives, how much time do we spend on innovation? Much of it goes into one of these three default modes:

INERTIA ~ doing the same thing repetitiously

IMITATION ~ copying (a natural learning device), by following how others do something

INSTRUCTION ~ receiving guidance from others in doing something

None of these three characteristics are unnecessary in our daily lives, unless they come at the expense of innovation. In being able to problem-solve, dispense ideas, and inspire mprovements, I suggest we need to spend at least 25 percent of our time on innovation. This would keep our neurons active ~ after all, thinking is an athletic activity, and a creative thinker is a ‘mental’ athlete.

Beware of these common causes of failure within corporate innovation processes:

1. Fuzzy goal definition

2. Misalignment of actions to goals

3. Poor participation in teams

4. Inexpert monitoring of results

5. Faulty communication and poor access to information

[Excerpted from the 'Igniting Innovation' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]