The reality is, innovation is hard – it takes time. Getting innovations to market can take years of investing, researching, and trying to get the innovation to work. For example, it took Chris Griffiths, CEO of Garrison Guitars, six minutes to sketch out his idea for a new guitar on the back of a napkin, and six years to get working prototypes, etc. Organizations, and the people who work for them, need passion, belief in their idea, and perseverance to go the distance in the pursuit of innovation.

Innovation also requires discipline and focus. Innovative companies focus their R&D efforts on customer-or market-driven solutions, and see the importance of setting R&D targets and monitoring them to ensure that pre-determined milestones have been met. The question asked repeatedly by shareholders and/or the board, and that needs to be answered is, “What did you do with the last bunch of money we invested?”

Remember, organizations do not innovate. People do. And people need time to innovate. Provide employees with the time and space to innovate. Braden Kelly, of Innovation Excellence, suggests as an alternative to allowing people to spend up to a blanket 10% of their time on innovation projects, instead allow employees to accumulate that time and then schedule time off to pursue a specific innovation project, often doing so at the same time with 3-4 other employees so they can collaborate on the project idea and push it forward.

Looking for more ideas related to innovation, read past newsletters at http://www.foursightconsulting.com/ideas/newsletter_backissues.php

There have been many who have been identified as great thinkers including: philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Rousseau, Voltaire, Kant, Foucault, Locke, Machiavelli, Sartre, Proust, Beauvoir, Fayol, Confucius; scientist & inventors such as Faraday, Marie Curie, Einstein, Copernicus, Edison, Newton; writers & authors such as  Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, Woolf, Maupassant, Tolstoy;  explorers & pioneers such as J. Cook, Lindbergh; composers - Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert; artists such as van Gogh, Matisse, Goya; innovators such as  Da Vinci, Freud, Jung; historians & teachers such as Boulanger, Montessori; impresario such as  Sergei Diaghilev, Cousteau; business & management gurus such as Drucker, Fayol; and world leaders.

With the recent passing of Steve Jobs, another great thinker, and my experience of workplaces, I question how many living great thinkers there are today. Thinking in itself seems to be lacking in workplaces today.

Reflection: If you are a great thinker, how are you contributing your “thinking” skills to make the world a better place? If you don’t think that you are, how might you improve your “thinking” skills?

1.  Creativity is a two-step. A leader’s first priority is to allow ideas to develop by keeping possibilities open – you have to suspend disbelief and avoid making judgments too soon. It might take the second, third, or even fiftieth idea before something clicks.
2. Use positive-speak to inspire confidence. Nothing shuts down creativity faster than a negative or judgmental tone. Fertilize creative ideas with supportive comments like, “I like it. Tell me more or can we explore one other option.”
3. Discover the gold nuggets in the muddy stream of ideas. Downplay negative feedback. Try to find the positive aspects in even the worst ideas. A bad idea could have elements that serve as starting points for excellent ideas.
4. Your schedules, timetables, and deadlines should harmonize disparate work styles. Recognize that creative people view time differently. A leader needs to acknowledge this reality and sometimes negotiate a mutually satisfactory agreement about time.
5. Well-set boundaries define extensive possibilities. Leaders need to set some boundaries. At times, you do need to be firm and keep creative people from going beyond time limits.
6. Ask questions that get to the essence of problems. Use a technique like the five “whys” to break through superficial understanding of a problem to reveal the fundamental truth. Practice genuine dialogue that leads to an explosion of ideas.
7. Remember that you are dealing with individuals, rather than interchangeable parts. A creative leader must be like a detective, using exploratory questions about “big” matters to gain a much-needed sense of employee’s personalities. Leaders need to treat each employee as an individual since each person has a unique set of skills, needs, and interests.

The survey involved 1,000 college-educated people aged 25 to 34, and it found that two-thirds of respondents decided where they wanted to live first, then went to that city and found a job afterward. “Diversity is the linchpin to it all,” Mr. Jones was quoted “Diversity of ideas seems to flow from diversity of people. One thing that defines economy now is diversity. If you say you can succeed without being diverse, you’re fighting a tidal wave.”

Diversity is innovation – What are you doing as an organization or a city to foster diversity?

For the complete Globe and Mail article, titled “Diversity now a key tool in the fight for the creative class,” September 21, 2011, go to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/diversity-now-a-key-tool-in-the-fight-for-the-creative-class/article2173191/).

This was proven to me recently when attending my MBTI Certification where I discovered an Asian man whose Extroversion preference was higher than mine (a highly extraverted white female). What is the so-what of this? Don’t assume that all people from a certain culture have the same personality type. Treat people as individuals.

1. What Motivates Us? - http://tinyurl.com/4ncfp5w 

2. Caroline Casey: Looking Past Limits -http://www.ted.com/talks/caroline_casey_looking_past_limits.html