You can learn to be innovative!

Do you think you are innovative?

A recent CNN article by Mark Tutton – Learn the 5 secrets of innovation elaborated on a 6 year study on innovation conducted by the Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University.

The study found that innovation CAN be learned, and that it is not dependent on genetics as perhaps first believed.

The 6 year study looked at over 3,000 executives, and 500 high profile entrepreneurs (inclding Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell), and discovered that there are 5 skills that separate the blue-sky innovators from the rest — these skills are;

• Associating
• Questioning
• Observing
• Experimenting
• Networking…

When Tutton interviewed Mark Ventresca from the University of Oxford Said Business School, he remarked;

"When it comes to developing your ability to innovate, Ventresca recommends simply setting aside 30 minutes a week to talk with a contact you wouldn't normally talk to — for example someone you met at conference six months ago.

Ventresca told CNN, "If you do that every week, that's 52 conversations in a year taking up 26 hours of time.

"Say 10 of those yield something interesting, and two of those 10 let you do something new and valuable — by investing just 26 hours a year you've come up with something pretty remarkable."

It really is that simple…

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Executives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.