Who uses Navigator Journals? Innovators do.
The Idea Factory started with some core beliefs focused on people and how we collaborate.These beliefs became “5 ways to enhance collaboration and innovation.”
- Listen to people
Listen to people when they comment, criticize, offer suggestions, or ask questions. Respond positively.
- Seek out ideas people
Seek out employees, suppliers, customers, colleagues, and people in your wider community who may be ideas people or good listeners.
- Respect ideas
Support and respect ideas that are generated. Give credit where and when it is due.
- Be committed
Be committed to the process of finding ideas for the ongoing success of your organization and its people.
- Give ideas
Give ideas generously to others. You will be rewarded in turn.
Idea leadership is what innovators provide
Innovators create ideas. They give ideas. They seek out ideas people. They respect ideas. They lead with new ideas. Innovators also use journals. Thomas Edison called his an ‘Idea Book.’ In one notebook he labeled a page: ‘Things doing and to be done.’ He sketched out his future innovations. He inspires us today. Journals help new ideas come to life.
We also know a great deal about innovators. Work by various academics researching cognitive style found common attributes of innovators. Dr. M. Kirton pioneered Adaption-Innovation as a roadmap to measure and manage thinking style, key for collaboration. Understanding this leads to stronger solutions, better decisions, and robust change. How many of these do you see in yourself?
Innovators prefer to do things differently
They may be labeled as negative by those who prefer to accept the current ways of doing things. Some say they like discovering new problems instead of solving old ones. They often produce many ideas which may seem unsound or irrelevant. That’s part of their process. They rarely say, “Don’t bring me problems; bring me solutions.” They like say, “What an interesting problem to solve.” Passion fuels the desire to create innovative solutions.
When solving problems
Innovators often ignore or even reject the common understanding of a problem. Instead, they may see it or define it in a new way.
- Be less concerned with short-term solutions and look for long-term possibilities.
- Challenge the traditional way of doing things.
When generating solutions
Innovators tend to create many ideas; some may not seem useful to others at first. Often these ideas result from doing things in different ways.
- Confidently generate ideas. Believe in them. You don’t need consensus to have conviction in an idea.
- Interesting challenges often start with: “We have no idea how to solve this.”
When change is needed
Times of change create many challenges. While innovators may have trouble managing routine work, they are ideal in a crisis; better still, innovators can help avoid them.
- Of your many challenges, which can you control? If you can control the process, invest your energy to shape innovative solutions.
- For challenges you cannot control, how can you get through the work while staying motivated?
How do innovators know they have a great idea?
It is easy to suggest examples of great ideas. It’s hard to express what makes an idea great. Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, gave me his inspired observation:
“Analysis and thought are critical to the recognition of a great idea, but they are not enough. They are a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition. In the end, good ideas often come from instinctive flashes of insight. But when you have a good idea, you know it with conviction, even if other people do not recognize it. One important feature of good ideas consists of having a gift or ability to see how things may turn out, how parts of the future may unfold.”
This is the language of innovators:
- flashes of insight
- you know it with conviction
- the ability to see how things may turn out
- the ability to see how parts of the future may unfold
For more information about Cognitive Style corporate workshops, email info@EdBernacki.ca You can also read How to stop killing the ideas of people who do not think like you by Ed Bernacki.
