Innovativeness

If we want to be good leader, we have to be innovative and if we want be innovative, we have to think out of the box.

To become an innovative person, we have to overcome Assumptive Limitations and Associative Barriers.

What is Assumptive Limitation?

We often assume some constraints ourselves if we were given any problem to solve. Assuming without asking for the clarity is what Assumptive Limitation is.

What is Associative Barrier?

A person with high associative barriers will quickly arrive at conclusions when confronted with a situation since his thinking is more focused. He will recall how the problem has been solved in the past and how people in a similar situation handled it.

Indeed, they restrain our capacity to think broadly when confronted with a situation. We do not challenge our assumptions and we create barriers to alternate ways of thinking.

How do we overcome Assumptive Limitations and Associative Barriers?

• Overcome the fear of being wrong
• Ask rather than assume
• Reverse Assumptions

How to be innovative and creative thinker?

There is a technique called SCAMPLER Technique which can be used to generate unique ideas.

The SCAMPLER technique is a team brainstorming technique used to develop or improve products or services.

SCAMPLER is actually an acronym and each letter stands for one thinking technique:

• Substitute
• Combine
• Adapt
• Modify
• Put to another use
• Low hanging Fruit
• Eliminate
• Reverse

Example for SCAMPLER:
Let us consider a case where our famliy members are not keen about taking breakfast and they often miss it. So, we need to solve this issue by finding appropriate ideas to make everyone not to miss breakfast.
We now use SCAMPLER techinque to find the ideas.

• Substitute: If everyone joins the breakfast on weekdays, we can go out on weekends.
• Combine: Last or the person who don't eat has to wash the vessels (or) we can combine breakfast with interesting TV shows and Movies.
• Adapt: Everyone has to do Yoga and then eat breakfast
• Modify: Modify the time and place (exmaple: One day at Garden, One day on Terrace etc.)
• Put to another use: If they fail to eat the breakfast then they have eat the same for lunch.
• Low hanging Fruit: For lazy people and children, serve the breakfast to their bed.
• Eliminate: Eliminate late night dinners so that they will not feel uncomfortable to eat breakfast.
• Reverse: The person who don't eat breakfast has to prepare their breakfast on the next day.

I this way, we can find more efficient and effective ideas.

Few motivational quotes that will inspire:

1. “My definition of Innovative is providing value to the customer.” - Marry T Barra
2. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” - Steve Jobs
3. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein