We see the word innovation a lot, and it’s sometimes surprising what qualifies for innovation as this buzzword is joked around. Those of us who are creative and creative know that our prospects for success are greater than those without such talents and traits. Perhaps that is why so many people seek to learn how to invent themselves. It certainly looks good on a resume, and most job descriptions contain a phrase or two like; Looking for a creative self-writer. Let’s talk a little more about innovation and see if you can discover how to better change your position as someone known to be innovative.
Innovation is simply a combination of feedback and solutions from other fields
Many who have thought about it long enough have realized that most good innovations in any given sector come from borrowing ideas or bits of ideas from other sectors or fields. Most innovators I know admit that most new original thinking concepts come to them this way. If that’s the case, we don’t need innovation education at all, we just need more musicians and people with broad sets of experience in many areas.
Unfortunately, this may mean that all “innovation experts” will be unemployed and teach very few seminars because until enrolled students have more experience in more areas of life and work, seminar participants will not be prepared to use the methodology that is being taught. Teach it or have enough knowledge to be a future competitor in the upper ranks of innovators.
Of course the scary part of reintegration theory for innovation creation means that it’s very easy to teach and if that’s the case, anyone can do it, so maybe that’s why everyone today is trying to specialize in this “innovation coach” category. Once someone has the experience, knowledge, and understanding of how information in one area is used in another, they can become innovators, at least skilled in the most common type of innovation.
If you are into sports, you might take some of the strategies and tactics used to win and use something similar if working to improve a product or sell a service. You may have spent a short time on a summer job, and realized that some of your notes there could be used in the organization you work for or volunteer for now. Perhaps you use a utensil in the kitchen that might also be useful for a task at work, with a little modification. There is your opportunity to innovate. Take it. Think about it early and often.