The New Book “Unpuzzling Innovation” Introduction Chapter 3 Digital Innovators

Creativity is the most wanted skill in the digital era due to the increasing speed of changes, fierce competition, and unprecedented uncertainty and ambiguity. But who are digital innovators? Do innovators belong to a rare breed, or are innovators just among us and within us? And what are important personas do digital innovators present?

Creative problem-solving: Creative minds with cognitive differences can reframe questions before answering them, to focus on WHY, before getting to the HOW. Innovators obviously thinking differently - problem-solving is part of their DNA whether it is in the invention, marketing, repurposing something already being there. As far as leading change is concerned, there is a lot of crossover between change leadership and creativity, creative leaders have the ability to reframe the circumstances or conditions around a problem, assimilate all relevant and available information, transform them into business insight, consciously cultivate a culture of innovation, and solve problems creatively,
The people who helped to shape our world are some of the broadest and innovative thinkers: The progress of the world is pushed forward by a select few who were applying broad and diverse skills to create the impossible. As we go through the digital and information revolution, we must embrace the skills of the past to build the new capabilities, and refocus on the problems we are solving and use any number of skills and disciplines to get there. To create the new requires not just one skill, but many, not just old experience, but the new perspective. And more often than not, you can not do on your own, no matter how broad your skills, you still need a diverse team of talent people who help bring all sorts of strengths and capabilities together.
Cultivating the culture of innovation is more important than training, in order to sow innovation seeds in organizations: The business’ innovation capability depends on its people, the team of talent who can transform the novel ideas to achieve the commercial value. Ultimately, if the company doesn’t have the expectation of innovativeness in its DNA, innovation training is all for naught. Better you create an atmosphere where staffs are encouraged to offer innovative, creative and insightful proposals for new products, new initiatives in cost reductions and better. Engagement by staff is increased when they are aware that there is a way to contribute. The innovation training is also not one size fits all. Innovation methodology, process, and tools can be taught, however, the innovation capabilities cannot be imposed by instruction or example. It is the nature of talent which should be discovered on their own and nurtured through the teamwork. The groundbreaking inventions or innovations are driven by people not only far-sighted but determined to make their ideas succeed.

Organizations need to invest in the cultivation of capacity for innovation. Mutual trust, innovation leadership, and emotional maturity are all critical in building a highly effective innovation team and achieve an exceptional result. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu