Self-improvement: Create Innovation

Self-improvement: Create Innovation: Create Innovation Innovation only happens in the right environment, one where everyone is not only allowed to innovate, but they are...

Create Innovation

Create Innovation

Innovation only happens in the right environment, one where everyone is not only allowed to innovate, but they are actively encouraged to speak up and bring new ideas to the table. This may sound like common sense, but it is far from common practice.

How do you create an innovative environment? These tips can help you breed a culture that contains innovation in its DNA:

         Innovation only comes by invitation. Invite people to bring forth their new ideas. True innovation takes place when people are free to raise ideas, take ownership of them, and then implement them. If people are required to ask permission for every step they take, they will stop asking permission.

         Innovation is not a solo sport, it requires a group of players with skills specific to the effort. Many companies appoint an innovation department or hire a chief innovation officer, which can make innovation just another stovepipe in the organization. While an idea may come from one individual, it’s the cross-functional creativity, trust, and collaboration that bring innovation to life.

         Encourage everyone to put their ideas to test fast, fail fast, and then reiterate. If people wait for perfection before they put the idea to work, the effort will lose steam before it ever gets off the ground.

         Value the lessons taken from failure as much as your successes, and apply those lessons toward each new attempt. This makes it safe for everyone to innovate. The idea is not to encourage failure but to foster innovation that leads to winning success as rapidly as possible.

         Ensure this behavior gets modeled at every level, from the very top to individual contributor. That means the senior leaders must be actively involved, not just mandating the change.

         Resist the desire to project manage your way to innovation. It cannot be generated by focusing solely on budgets, resources, and timelines. If you try, you can guarantee your innovation investment will be wasted.

You can even get a little, ahem, innovative with your strategy for encouraging innovation. Consider offering awards for innovative attempts – both ones that may have failed, like the Heroic Failure Award, and even silly, risky ones that led to a breakthrough like the Golden Goose Award. Or, set an example by taking the Marshmallow Challenge with your teams, which teaches that success comes only by trying often, failing often, revising, and trying again. Once the focus changes from coming up with the perfect solution to rapidly and boldly trying new things, your company will go from incremental gains to game-changing winning innovations.

Building Your Creative Mind

There are two types of creativity, technical creativity and artistic creativity.

Technical creativity helps you problem solve and create new theories and ideas, while artistic creativity is a form of expression, and is also necessary for psychological well-being. Here are tools to push your creative bounds for both.

1. Mindtools

Mindtools works on your technical creativity and helps identify how creative you are and create a plan to start thinking differently. An example would be provocation - the tool Einstein used to develop the Theory of Relativity. Provocation is a tool that disrupts linear thinking patterns to find a new and better solution. The example Mindtools uses is driving to work. You typically use the same route everyday, but by creating a new route and using your mind to discover a new way, you've disrupted your brain's thinking pattern, and therefore may think of new ideas.

2. Brainplots

Brainstorming can be an effective tool in organizing tons of ideas creatively in one place, and refining those ideas over time. Letting your mind free flow even bad ideas from several different angles can allow the brain to process a problem from new direction. Using a brainstorming tool like Brainplots is helpful in revisiting and allowing others to look at the problem as well and giving feedback.

2. PaintNite

PaintNite is an opportunity to learn how to paint and tap into your inner expressive artist. A local artist teaches a group how to paint a selected piece that is rated on a scale of easy to advanced, and after a few hours the canvas is complete.  Painting brings not only creativity but other important office soft skills to your brain. A German study found a group taking art classes had “a significant improvement in psychological resilience" and improved  "functional connectivity" in their frontal, posterior, and temporal cortex. According to the study, creating art will enhance self-awareness, reduce stress, and overall has stabilizing effects on the neuroanatomy of the participant. So pick up a brush, head to a local bar, and bring home a masterpiece.

3. Doodlebuddy

Doodling can be a way your mind stays actively engaged and solves a problem. Even while listening to a leader, professor, speaker, or other engaging talks that require you to listen and think, doodling can be a form of expression and note taking that brings surprising results. Some people are visual learners, and the doodle allows those types of learners to translate words into pictorial meaning. Often during meetings allowing more creative people to doodle the meeting and keep artistic notes as a representation can bring surprising results. Using an app like doodle buddy can allow you to keep the images and express yourself.

4. AllTrails Hiking App

Going on a hike doesn't just facilitate blood flow to the brain, choose a place with greenery. A study showed the color green specifically enhances creativity. Using the AllTrails App, you can actually browse nearby hikes, see photos, and choose a hike that has the right distance and greenery for your needs.

5. SnapGuide

Snapguide provides users with Do It Yourself guides on all sorts of crowd sourced projects, whether its homemade beauty products, to delicious recipes. Not only can you find creative projects that can help you with a variety of different problems (phone hacks to migraines), you can contribute your own creativity.

6. Fyuse

Fyuse is one of the best apps for video/Fyusing that I've ever used. It helps me re-think and image photography and video into what they are calling a Fyuse. I've even incorporated this into my personal site to give a different angle into my online life. Worth checking out.

Building Your Creative Mind

Building Your Creative Mind

There are two types of creativity, technical creativity and artistic creativity.

Technical creativity helps you problem solve and create new theories and ideas, while artistic creativity is a form of expression, and is also necessary for psychological well-being. Here are tools to push your creative bounds for both.

1. Mindtools

Mindtools works on your technical creativity and helps identify how creative you are and create a plan to start thinking differently. An example would be provocation - the tool Einstein used to develop the Theory of Relativity. Provocation is a tool that disrupts linear thinking patterns to find a new and better solution. The example Mindtools uses is driving to work. You typically use the same route everyday, but by creating a new route and using your mind to discover a new way, you've disrupted your brain's thinking pattern, and therefore may think of new ideas.

2. Brainplots

Brainstorming can be an effective tool in organizing tons of ideas creatively in one place, and refining those ideas over time. Letting your mind free flow even bad ideas from several different angles can allow the brain to process a problem from new direction. Using a brainstorming tool like Brainplots is helpful in revisiting and allowing others to look at the problem as well and giving feedback.

2. PaintNite

PaintNite is an opportunity to learn how to paint and tap into your inner expressive artist. A local artist teaches a group how to paint a selected piece that is rated on a scale of easy to advanced, and after a few hours the canvas is complete.  Painting brings not only creativity but other important office soft skills to your brain. A German study found a group taking art classes had “a significant improvement in psychological resilience" and improved  "functional connectivity" in their frontal, posterior, and temporal cortex. According to the study, creating art will enhance self-awareness, reduce stress, and overall has stabilizing effects on the neuroanatomy of the participant. So pick up a brush, head to a local bar, and bring home a masterpiece.

3. Doodlebuddy

Doodling can be a way your mind stays actively engaged and solves a problem. Even while listening to a leader, professor, speaker, or other engaging talks that require you to listen and think, doodling can be a form of expression and note taking that brings surprising results. Some people are visual learners, and the doodle allows those types of learners to translate words into pictorial meaning. Often during meetings allowing more creative people to doodle the meeting and keep artistic notes as a representation can bring surprising results. Using an app like doodle buddy can allow you to keep the images and express yourself.

4. AllTrails Hiking App

Going on a hike doesn't just facilitate blood flow to the brain, choose a place with greenery. A study showed the color green specifically enhances creativity. Using the AllTrails App, you can actually browse nearby hikes, see photos, and choose a hike that has the right distance and greenery for your needs.

5. SnapGuide

Snapguide provides users with Do It Yourself guides on all sorts of crowd sourced projects, whether its homemade beauty products, to delicious recipes. Not only can you find creative projects that can help you with a variety of different problems (phone hacks to migraines), you can contribute your own creativity.

6. Fyuse

Fyuse is one of the best apps for video/Fyusing that I've ever used. It helps me re-think and image photography and video into what they are calling a Fyuse. I've even incorporated this into my personal site to give a different angle into my online life. Worth checking out.

Self-improvement: Always learn words in pairs if the word has an opp...

Self-improvement: Always learn words in pairs if the word has an opp...: Always learn words in pairs if the word has an opposite. For example if you have the word Off then learn the word ON at the same tim...

Self-improvement: Always learn words in pairs if the word has an opp...

Self-improvement: Always learn words in pairs if the word has an opp...: Always learn words in pairs if the word has an opposite. For example if you have the word Off then learn the word ON at the same tim...

Always learn words in pairs if the word has an opposite

Always learn words in pairs if the word has an opposite.

For example if you have the word Off then learn the word ON at the same time.

Good x Bad,

Hot x Cold,

Slowly x Quickly,

Slow x Fast,

Uncomfortable x Comfortable,

Pack x Unpack,

Over x Under,

Stupid x Smart,

Big x Small,

Expensive x Cheap,

Always x Never,

Much x Few,

More x Less,

Healthy x Ill,

Alive x Dead,

Specific x General,

Nothing x Something,

Done x Undone,

Here x There,

Lost x Found,

Lose x Find,

Minimize x Maximize,

Simple x Complex,

Hard x Easy,

Hard x Soft,

Traditional x Modern,

Take x Give,

Taken x Given,

Off x On,

Active x Inactive,

Happy x Unhappy,

Smile x Frown,

Wonderful x Rubbish,

Great x Crap,

High x Low,

Large x Small,

Thick x Thin,

Same x Different,

Light x Dark,

Light x Heavy,

Full x Empty,

Beautiful x Average,

Warm x Cool,

Many x Few,

Short x Long,

Last x First,

Above x Below,

Ahead x Behind,

In x Out,

Happy x Unhappy,

Fast x Slow,

Easy x Difficult,

Wet x Dry,

Smooth x Rough,

Tight x Loose,

Far x Near,

Young x Old,

Weak x Strong,

Left x Right,

Right x Wrong,

Up x Down,

Under x Over,

Poor x Rich,

Never x Always,

Unfair x Fair,

Unfairly x Fairly,

Common x Rare,

Often x Rarely,

Late x Early,

Dull x Bright,

Close x Open,

Shallow x Deep,

Quiet x Loud,

A bit x A lot,

Tight x Loose,

Nowhere x Everywhere,

Yesterday x Today/Tomorrow,

Less x More,

Enemy x Friend,

War x Peace,

Mean x Nice,

Dirty x Clean,

Disagree x Agree,

Displeased x Pleased,

Tired x Energetic,

Boring x Interesting,

Inside x Outside,

Now x Later,

Inside x Outside,

Now x Later,

Last x First,

Backward x Forward,

Tea x Coffee