Five Practices To Best Use A Resonant Innovation Mindset

Awareness of the concept of innovation has been on the minds of many leaders and entrepreneurs alike. This awareness is not new; in fact it has been on the hearts and minds of organizations, leaders and individuals for centuries. Now we want to look at it in a new way in order to apply it with meaningful results. Innovation in general is a term that defines an array of possibilities, considers the edge they need to move forward and holds some mysterious enigma on how to actually create and sustain it.

Considering the economic changes in recent years, navigating change is even more important to create the needed stability as well as inspiration to move forward. For most people, the word or concept of innovation is perhaps just that, a concept. Leaders and entrepreneurs consider the concept but get mixed messages on how to implement the structures, processes or the people around it. To best gain traction on this concept, many leaders are finding the need to explore innovation from the seed from which it grows and that is the psychology of the resonant innovation mindset.

As a leader and coach of leaders, I help organizations navigate these times by building a new set of tools that form the resonant innovation mindset. Because innovation comes from the inherent ability of individuals to use a meta-view of any situation, surmise a unique path to move forward with success and have the critical thinking skills to implement it, innovation requires helping individuals access this composite skillset of the mind.

In their research of innovation, David and Arthur Cropley found that it was important to move from the traditional way of considering innovation to dissect and clarify the meaning as it applies to areas of creative ability, defining problems as “discrepancies between current situation and goals,” and idea creation and evaluation. In their research, Mumford, Hester and Robledo discuss that it is important to look at innovation for its complexity and relationship between individuals, teams and the organization. This research has provided a more defined pathway on how to innovate the way we look at innovation.

Moving forward with resonant innovation mindset, here are five areas of mindset practices to consider.

1. On the other side of change is opportunity. There have been and will be economic, social and interpersonal challenges that organizations face. The key is to look at the one that is in front of your organization now and help your teams learn how to have adaptability in their mindset to see that every challenge provides a new opportunity. The exciting aspect of this is that it will allow them to expand their mindset to be more global as well as be key influencers in creating innovative ways to find what opportunities lie in front of them.

2. Ask what ways can I create a competitive edge and increase revenues that are congruent with our company’s or team’s strengths and values. Resonant innovation adds the aspect of allowing your team to look at any challenge and uncover what unique assets they have to navigate it as well as finding solutions that are congruent with their ways of expressing change in the world.

3. Build creative self-efficacy in your team. Creative self-efficacy, specifically, is the belief that one has the capacity to perform creative work effectively (abstract only). In order to build creative efficacy, individuals and teams need to be able to learn the aspects of it, practice building the skill and adapt their mindset to create new strategies for it. Allow them to learn through innovation labs that teach creative efficacy.

4. Create high-quality and eloquent ways to solve problems. Create the expectation in your culture that innovative solutions are not reactive, but deliberate. Look for the long-term impact, the adaptability and how effectively and uniquely the innovation creates a solution, product or meets a need.

5. Divergent thinking strategies. Divergent thinking is a crucial skill of resonant innovation. Study the personalities in your organization to find those that lead with that in order to model the process. Divergent thinking means looking at what you want to solve and taking it apart to ascertain what is truly the area you want to solve, what the assets are in the company to solve for them and new ways to grow ideas and solutions that have not yet been done.

Developing a resonant innovation mindset allows companies and cultures to coordinate and drive new innovations that are congruent with the ways they want to succeed and express themselves in the world. Innovation is a long-standing concept and the need for it will continue, now more than ever. Using these aspects can help guide companies, leaders and entrepreneurs to reach sustainability, adaptability and innovation in changing times.

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