Although innovation is a topic of high interest in today’s business publications, it really is nothing new. Think about development of the automobile, the transistor, the computer … and these are just from the 20th century. In effect, innovation has been going on nearly ever since human beings realized that their lives are not a function of the whims of mythological creatures.

What is new is that innovation is now more often a subject less about growth, and more about survival, of a business. The rate at which knowledge spreads in the digital world, combined with the entry of many new players (e.g., China, India, Russia) to the capitalist economy, causes products to quickly become commoditized.

So if you want to be innovative, what do you need to do? One key is to make sure to understand what kinds of mindsets are more likely to yield out-of-the box thinking. Two categories of learning styles can provide insights into these mindsets.

A generative learning style is one where the individual prefers to come up with ideas from within their own mind … creative thinking. An adaptive learning style is one where the individual prefers to learn from what others are doing … sort of like benchmarking.

Either learning style can contribute to innovation, but in different ways. While the adaptive style may be better suited to identifying problems others have for which innovation might be useful, a generative style is more likely suited to developing the ideas that might work.

So if you want to build an innovative organization, make sure you know something about how people prefer to learn. Provide an innovation process map within which each style can play an appropriate role.

Of course, innovation provides no guarantee of business survival, but it is likely to provide a more interesting workplace. People inherently like to try to improve their worlds, and this is a way they can do so through their work.

© 2007 Duke Okes

Duke Okes helps organizations and individuals develop new capabilities. He can be reached at http://www.aplomet.com

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