What all business leaders recognize is that to stay in business and excel you must have a competitive advantage. There is no easier way to gain advantages than executing innovative ideas.
Think of where Apple went when it was first with the iPod, then the iPad and iPhone -- all great innovative ideas that were the first to the market.
What do businesses feel is the key to consistently creating innovative ideas?
While all can agree that having innovative ideas to execute is the key to setting the pace in your market space, the answer to having a sustainable source for such innovative thinking can pose the greatest challenge yet. There are those that believe that there are specific markers or standards that are shared amongst those who excel at the art of creating innovative ideas.
Teresa Amabile & Innovative Ideas
One of those individuals heads up the research in the Entrepreneurial and Managerial Unit at this country’s most prestigious business school at Harvard. Teresa Amabile is that Director of research and, according to her, there are specific keys to having all the components needed to keep innovative ideas flowing.
Ingredients For Innovative Ideas
Amabile contends that before a person can become an innovator in their chosen field, but they must first posses some expert knowledge. However, she claims that knowledge isn’t enough, that innovative ideas are also a matter of talent. Talent, she feels, is innate, at least partly, but that there exists additional factors that can combine to make up such expertise. Ingredient, such as work experience, professional development, and education level also contribute to innovative ideas. Most importantly for those to individuals to continue to create and display innovative ideas they must remain open to learning new things.
Amabile’s report on the subject, Leadership: A Master Class. Another crucial element that is important to possess is that of creative thinking; saying outside the box has become trite, but the ability to see an old problem with a new set of eyes is the way to reach inner creativeness that can result in innovative ideas that can make significant change. Of course seeing things in a new way does no good for those who are not willing to take the risk to share them with others and see them come to fruition. Innovative ideas are not restricted to those with genius, only those willing to open their minds to embracing new information in a creative way.
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