“One of the most versatile and innovative authors whose name figures with the greats like Thomas Friedman and Dale Carnegie.” That’s Virender Kapoor for you, verbatim from his site – www.virenderkapoor.com. More on Jugaad and Innovation from the Inspirational Guru himself.
Innovation is not an occurrence – it is an attitude.
Though required by everyone, innovation becomes a life line for people who deal with technology, strategy or processes. In the last three decades most of the “maximum impact products “emerged from ICT which changed the way the world works. An innovator need not come up with E=mc2 every time. Ideas, products or processes you come up with could be simple, sometimes even insignificant, can still be counted as innovations as long as they are different. Rather than waiting to come up with something spectacularly great once in your lifetime, your endeavor should be to raise your Innovation Quotient or InnQ gradually by innovating all the time. To make “Innovativity” as an attitude, it is important to broaden your horizon. Visit new locations, read books and articles on new subjects, meet new people from different age groups. That is the way to tickle your brain and give it a chance to kick up something new; original; different.
Be a Master of Metaphor.
Aristotle said that the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the most powerful way to bring creativity into your life. Metaphor is an analogy between objects or ideas conveyed by the use of a word. “I slept like a dog” or “I Love you from the bottom of my heart”, are metaphors. Pregnant mind itself is a metaphor. It Conceives, nurtures and delivers.
Face mash and then facebook are also metaphors. They are idea generators! An expression can well become a great idea or even an invention.
Will it make a difference?
When you are coming up with an innovation, ask yourself, “ Will this make life easier, better or happier for others ? Will this piece of software or a black box be able to help solve some existing problems?”. You have a great idea if the answer is yes.
Look for gaps. For an author it is very important to look at the existing books and identify something that is missing, on the shelf. This ‘missing thing’ is the birth of a book. And then one starts thinking about the content and after that writing happens. Conceived, nurtured and delivered.
It has to be with you all the time.
When Archimedes was thinking about the impurity in the golden crown of king Hiero – he had this ‘ bug’ in his mind all the time. If he had not been thinking about it in the bath tub, he would have never got his “Eureka” moment and there would have been no Archimedes Principle. Power of observation is also very important. Newton got the gravitational law, just by observing an apple falling from a tree and ‘acting’ on that observation. So the mantra is to remain alert and observant all the time.
Synch with your InnQ Biorhythm.
There are certain times of the day when new ideas flow through our mind. Some people get ideas while driving a car, some on the tread mill in the Gym and a few while having a bath. Ideas come to us mostly when we are doing a routine peripheral job and our mind’s Operating System is relatively free to ‘wander about’ and act like a fly catcher.
Conformists can never be creative.
Break rules to break barriers of thought and try to get out there on a dangerous turf. Be prepared to make mistakes till you get an idea that works. Breaking the status quo should become a habit. Have faith in serendipitous out comes out of your routine work and observations.You never know while shifting bricks, under which brick you would find your lucky charm and your golden moment.
Latest posts by Virender Kapoor (see all)
- No banana bosses please! - April 29, 2014
- Pregnant Minds – Innovational Attitude by Virender Kapoor - August 1, 2013
- E.Q trumps I.Q! - June 3, 2013
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