Series Conclusion
Wow! Now that was one heck of an innovative journey! As you see, everything available on Innovation and Creativity has been put into this volume of blogs. It’s everything worth knowing on the subject.
In This seriese have covered a lot of ground. We discussed “Perspective” and how our brains can be fooled to the point we just can’t see the solution. We discussed “Organic innovation”, which I think is a pretty cool concept and one that infiltrates through every facet of innovative thinking.
Also included was an up front to discussion on “Failure”. Not a lot of books would dedicate an entire chapter to failure. As you read, failure is just as much a part of the process to innovative ideas as success. Failure happens more than success and as innovators, need to understand how to identify with it and most importantly, deal with it.We talked about our brains and how they work. Discussed the difference between our left brain, analytical and or right brain, creative. Then “Innovation and Creativity”. Where it comes from, how it works, and how often doesn’t work.
There was one chapter called “I Can’t Believe It” which showed examples of famous people performing life changing innovations and just how short sighted so many people are about innovation, creativity, and change. You also saw the type of opposition you can face going forward as a more innovative person. Don’t be discouraged.
We discussed (a lot) of examples of simple “Random Association” and how by putting simple ideas together can create something entirely new. My wish for this chapter is to show you not only “how” to put disassociated ideas together, but that fact that you can do it! It’s not that hard and when you practice, you can do it all of the time!
we then discussed the “Three C’s”, the actual formula for thinking innovatively. Who knew there was a formula? And, something as powerful and discovering a formula for being more creative, was only three simple steps. As we saw, the difficult part was providing the right environment and training ourselves to stop our “stinkin’ thinking”.
There were dozens of techniques that have been discovered to help draw out every bit of creative juice you have in you. We looked at everything from Mind Mapping to Brain Storming and From SWOT to The Five W’s.Then we discussed an important topic, Team Think. We seldom think alone without the help and influence of others/ If we are required to get creative at work, it is very likely there will be a team involved.Thinking with teams is significantly different than trying to think alone. As a matter of fact, I don’t recommend you think alone. Creativity seldom happens in a vacuum. As we discussed, when you gather a Team Think together and provide the right environment, you can utilize 100’s of years of individual experiences and perspectives. The solutions always develop into more complete, more mature ideas, and they come faster.Lastly, we discussed “Motivation”. You only need to completely understand what motivates you, what drives you. When you know this, you can focus on the motivators in you and find the energy to achieve your goals and accomplish your dream.
And finally part of this section, we discussed what motivates others and how important it is to understand what it is so, you can provide motivation to your team and realize bigger and better results.
The overarching purpose of this book is to show you the importance of innovative thinking and the power behind thinking creativity. It doesn’t matter if you are a design engineer, a physicist, an artist, a business person, in sales or public relations, a teacher, or in the military. You can be retired, or just beginning your career, thinking more creatively will help you throughout the rest of your life.Being able to solve problems more efficiently and more quickly will always pay off. And who knows, you might just develop the next Pet Rock!
(If you do, remember me, the one who showed you how…)
I hope we can continue our journey together by connecting with me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and take a look at my website www.Safko.com.
Thank you for sharing your time over these pages of blog of electrons. I look forward to getting to know you.
Lon Safko
Serial Innovator, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Innovative Thinking
Tags: innovative thinking, creative, creative thinking, Innovation, critical thinking definition, innovation definition, critical thinking skills, creative process