Don't know if anybody does this survey...

In a year, how many people have generate more than 100 crazy ideas? And how many of them finally execute at least one of them?

From myself, from my friends, I feel the flavor of creativity a lot. It's not difficult to see friends generating good jokes, having new business ideas (that, at least at a first glance, is good), generating some "proprietary" theories, etc.

So are people not creative? I don't think so. Are people not innovative? Probably they are.

What is the reason behind? To me, it's they didn't turn their creativity into practice and hence no value is generated to the world.

my viewpoint on innovation

i am no theorist in this topic. nor i think myself as an innovative person. however, i do sometimes generate some crazy ideas.

and i found a pattern of myself: to apply something ordinary in one area to the other areas. this is somehow rewarding.

for example, many years ago, there was only one flavor of chick-egg-son.. you know, that famous snack in hong kong. ok, i have thought about this when i was small.. we have so many flavor of milk drinks: chocolate, melon, banana, strawberry, etc. will it be fun to apply those flavors to chick-egg-son? will it be delicious?

well i didn't know at that moment. but many years later, i saw chick-egg-son in different flavors in the street.

they called that innovation.

Step-by-step to build up innovative competence

What is innovation? Is it natural born? Or can it be cultivated? To me, I don’t think I am a creative people; however I always being sparked during some chatting or discussion. Yesterday, I searched around flickr and found someone post an “Innovation Competence Process” for an organization. It is pretty make sense and good for spending sometime to digest it.

Step 1: Appreciate
The fundamental principle of this process is to appreciation of everybody’s capacity to contribute to innovation. Everybody should have contribution no matter sitting on which stage of the management ladder. To me, more people can induce more stimulation to my brain.

Step 2: Self-Assess
The original name of this step is “Self-Assess”, but I rather rename it as “Open Forum”. Since each individual has different thinking process and rationale, we can learn a lot thru challenging others’ ideas. The key is to provide an environment to get everybody involved and give everybody a voice and listen freely.

Step3: Prioritize
After the innovative idea being criticized, it should in a good shape and the next step is to set priorities and followed by the constitution of an action plan.

Step 4: Reach Out
Find others that can share their experiences, who can learn from and whom you can share with in your environment. Experiences from these counterparts are invaluable.

Step 5: Connect, Share & Learn
There is nothing more powerful than benefiting from the experience of somebody who has already gone through similar issues and problems. The basic principle here: Everybody has something to learn and something to share. This is also fall into Web 2.0 paradigm – sharing, participating, and collaborating.

My organization is now exploring a new research and product idea. Hopefully, I can follow the above process and synergize more value innovation.

A sleepless night and innovation

Can't get into sleep. This seldom happens to me. But never mind, it gives me some quiet private time to think about anything wild! ;)

I start to think about a lot of things: the team meeting we had yesterday, things that Totoro says, some of my wild business ideas... All of a sudden, the word "innovation" pops up to my mind.

Starting to think about innovation, I feel more and more excited. Excited coz I find this topic should be interesting to a lot of people and feel like starting a sharing trigger through my little blog.

Let me post the following questions. This time, feel free to show your thoughts and characters. If not, don't worry. Everybody knows I am one who can't help bluffing all my ideas. So, soon or later I will put my ideas here.

1. What is innovation?
2. What are the triggers for innovation?
   
3. What are the inputs for innovation?
4. When and where should we apply innovation?
5. Is innovativeness a gift? Or something that could be trained?
6. Who are the biggest 3 innovators you ever admire?

Participate ... and stay tuned!