Effects of Attitude on Innovation
Ideas are
the source of improvements, innovations and inventions. However, some ideas may
take more effort to generate, are difficult to come by, and more valuable than
others.
Classes of Ideas
Ideas
could be categorised in the four classes. These are:
·
Efficient Ideas
This
class of ideas helps us do the right thing and do them the right way. These
ideas do not call us to challenge or substantially change the organisation’s
current processes. They usually lead to incremental changes and are unlikely to
be noticed by people outside of the organisation.
·
Refining Ideas
This
class of ideas helps us do things better. We want to know if ‘there is a better
way of achieving the same output?’ It looks at the means and not the end
itself. Since only the ways a service or product is delivered are changed,
people external of the organisation may not be aware of the change.
·
Adopting Ideas
This
class of ideas helps us do things in the ways others are doing. There is no
shame in borrowing ideas from other organisations or industries, and adapting
them in our organisations. Many of such ideas are known to us as best practices
and they inform us of the proven ideas that usually work in the structures of a
given context.
·
Different Ideas
This
class of ideas helps us do things in ways that no one else has done before.
These are truly radical ideas that have not been thought of before or have not
been successfully implemented in the past. These ideas are usually the most
difficult to execute since they are the first of their kind and they demand
radical changes in the organisations. However, once they are successfully
implemented, they are also the ones that deliver the most benefit and value to
our organisations.
Innovation Process
Innovation
does not exist out of the blue. It goes through phases of identifying and
turning ideas into innovations that change our current circumstances.
A typical
innovation process usually has four generic phases. These are:
·
Define Phase
Problem
is defined as a state of difficulty, and
goal of innovation is to change this state. Therefore, if we can find
the problem, we could find the opportunities where innovations could become
handy. This kind of problems is called propportunities.
· To do this, we must have a good appreciation
our surrounding environment and clear understanding of the problems that exist
in this space. In this phase, we generate the definitions and specifications of
the problem, and reach a general consensus on them before making attempts to
solve it.
·
Discover Phase
The
source of Innovation is ideas.
There
are two rules in the Discover Phase. These are suppressing our judging faculty
temporarily and spending sufficient of time in generating alternative options.
In this way, we give exploration a chance to populate the discourse with enough
of ideas for the next phase of the innovation process.
·
Decide Phase
All
ideas have the potential of creating a breakthrough, but some point, we will
have to decide on the idea that is most likely to succeed at a cost that is
most manageable. The flexibility and range for executing this phase depends a
lot on the quality and quantity of ideas generated in the previous phase.
·
Deliver Phase
There
is no breakthrough when there is no innovation.
The
instrument for change is by making the innovation a reality; by creating and
delivering the solution to users who need it. No all innovations will deliver immediate
breakthroughs, and will need us to make refinements to them. To do this, we
need to revisit the preceding phases to identify the sources of failure.
Choices and Personality
The
choices we make when participating in innovation can be influenced by our
personalities.
In brief,
there are two basic kinds of cognitive ‘functions’ which guide the way we:
·
Take in information (Sensing (S) or iNtuiting
(N)) to understand things around us, and
·
Make decisions (Thinking (T) or Feeling (F))
based on the information we have gathered.
There are
also two different temperaments which we exhibit. We either show:
· Extroversion (E), where we operate in the
external world of behaviours, actions, people, and things, or
·
Introversion (I), where we operate in the internal
world of ideas and reflection.
There is a
‘Lifestyle’ dimension in this model. We either have a preference for:
·
Judging (J), where we want things to be
planned, stable and organised, or
·
Perceiving (P), where we like to ‘go with the
flow’ and respond to situations as they appear.
Each of
these preferences points to a character in the alphabet, which in combination
forms a four-character code that informs us about our personality.
Personality and Innovation
Some
people are more capable of generating a class of ideas and find it easier to
navigate through a particular phase of the Innovation Process. We call this
inclination our ‘Innovation Attitude’.
The 2nd
and 4th character in our personality type indicator code inform us of our
innovation attitude. This is the preference that influences why we are
attracted a type of ideas, how we define a problem, and how we are likely to
act during the innovation process. The code containing the:
· 'SJ' character suggests the innovation
attitude of 'Efficiency'.
Precise
information and timing is critical to SJians. For them, Sensing is introverted.
They draw and use information from their own knowledge and experience bases to
assess and judge their situations. They are likely to seek innovative ideas
that create greater efficiencies and improve effectiveness.
· 'SP' character suggests the innovation
attitude of 'Refining'.
SPians
are pre-disposed to experience the world with their senses. For them, Sensing
is extroverted. In wanting to engage the people around them and to feel the
variety of experiences their surroundings have to offer, they will operate in
this external space to collect as much information as possible and respond to
the situation accordingly. They are drawn to innovative ideas that can help
them refine and adapt their current realities to continue enjoying these
experiences. However, for them it also involves not doing something.
· 'NJ' character suggests the innovation
attitude of 'Adopting'.
NJians
understand that the time they need to convert their internal ideas to external
realities is scarce, and will plan and organise ways to execute their insights
to reduce loss. For them, Intuition is introverted, and they are likely to sort
ideas internally, especially in terms of their importance and urgency to what
is valued. Typically, NJians will borrow ideas from outside their sphere of
influence, and adopt what can be applied, and innovate what cannot be
accordingly.
· 'NP' character suggests the innovation
attitude of 'Different'.
Connecting
people to emerging potential concepts and ideas to generate possibilities is
what keeps the NPians going. For them, Intuition is extroverted, and they see
alternatives as life bloods in a world of interactions. In this space, NPians
seek out ideas that are original – that are different from what are already out
there are better informed about the potential we can tap on and the choices we
can make while navigating through our innovative organisation and its processes.
Successful
innovation teams have a healthy balance of these four innovation attitudes in
its members. This way, each member, whose innovation attitude is need the most
at a particular stage of developing an innovation, could be called to come
forward to lead the teams and seek the breakthrough they need to move the
project forward.
This article was 1st written on 8 Aug 2012.
