Working at MD
• How do I know if I am an innovator?
They're not afraid to try doing things differently.
But doing something different involves taking a risk and that can be scary. Innovators are willing to take on that risk because helping others by improving or creating things is more important to them than their own comfort.
Because innovation is arguably THE most important skill you can have, especially if you need to cross-market your skills or get a promotion. Every industry requires creativity, so if you want to be a hot commodity, in demand, and happily employed, you need to be innovative!
• What is career innovation?
Career innovation occurs when you stop looking at your career in the traditional way and start to consider moving to a career more suited to your future self. This may include small steps, such as looking at the way you are developing the knowledge needed for your future.
• Is innovation a skill or talent?
Innovation skills refer to the talent of exploiting new ideas for the purpose of gaining social or economic value. Innovation skills are usually a combination of one's ability to think creatively, problem-solving ability, as well as functional and/or technical abilities.
• What 4 skills are required for innovation?
Across industries, these four skills are:
o Communication skills.
o Strategic thinking.
o Leadership skills.
o Creative problem-solving.
• What are the 4 types of innovation?
These are the four types of innovation that stand out and seem to be the consensus among organizations looking for a groundbreaking idea, concept, or product.
o Incremental innovation.
o Adjacent innovation.
o Disruptive innovation.
o Radical innovation.
• What are the 7 streams of innovation opportunities?
This is indeed the moment where something unexpected happens that leads to a new product or service. You weren’t looking for it; the surprise found you! It is by far, the easiest and simplest source of innovation.
o Incongruities. When there is a discrepancy between what is and what should be, you have an innovation opportunity. It’s that weird feeling, an incongruity, between expectations and results. It’s a disruption in the logic or rhythm of a process. It just doesn’t feel right.
o Process Needs. Perhaps there is a bottleneck or a weak link in a critical process. A substantial (not just a tweak) improvement to the process leads to innovation. The process innovator is always searching and saying, “There has to be a better way!”
o Industry and Market Structure. Industry and markets are always in a continual state of flux. Regulations change, product lines expand, and others shrink. Those that watch these changes may recognize untapped opportunities for new types of products and services.
o Demographics. The changing demographics (age, education, disposable income, etc.) and moving populations are rich sources of ideas for creating new products and services.
o Changes in Perception. Meaning and Mood. Over time, populations and people change. The way they view life changes, where they take their meaning from and how they feel about things changes over time. Savvy innovators detect these shifts and leverage them.
o New Knowledge. New technologies, knowledge and discoveries can completely change an industry. These types of innovations are usually what people mean when they talk about innovation, yet these sources have the longest lead times to commercial development.
• What are the 5 Cs of innovation?
Found that innovation could grow from any number of combinations of the five “Cs”: competition, collaboration, culture, catalysts, and constraints.
Is innovation a soft skill or hard skill?
Defined by the American Management Association as the Four C's — creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking — soft skills are the transformative skills necessary for innovation to take root and grow in any organization.
After analyzing several studies on this subject, we came to the conclusion innovators usually have these 5 traits:
1) Innovators Are Highly Confident
Innovators are confident people. They are not afraid of risk. Instead of fearing the unknown, innovators are confident about the opportunities that will come. They trust their judgment and abilities and are able to make decisions under pressure. Furthermore, this confidence also seems to be somehow related to optimism, i.e., innovators have a general disposition toward having unrealistic beliefs in good outcomes. However, they’re not overconfident as they understand listening and taking advice makes it easier to avoid making mistakes.
2) Innovators Are Creative Gurus
Innovators have their curiosity and perceptiveness extremely well developed. This allows them to better identify needs and opportunities in places where no one else is looking. Once they perceive there’s a gap to fulfill, their fertile and “out of the box” minds develop an innovative way to approach it. In their “incubation” period (part of the classic stages of the creative process), they exercise their creativity and nurture themselves in their own special way. Some go for a walk or a forest bath. Others do sports or practice meditation and yoga. There are still the ones that brainstorm or sing in the shower.
3) Innovators Are Open to New Experiences
Innovators are open to new experiences. In fact, openness is one of the most important personality dimensions to foretell the ability to innovate, studies say. These innovative people easily cope with the different ambiguous situations they face every day and they have no problem making decisions under circumstances of doubt or fear. The road of innovation maybe be a long and often dark one, but these brave individuals are looking forward to new experiences that might come along.
4) Innovators Are Driven and Motivated by Change
Innovators are intrinsically motivated by change. They enjoy improving products, services or situations even if sometimes there’s no extrinsic reward. They have a huge internal motivation to contribute to a change and they usually have a strong personal initiative. This means innovators’ behavior is self-started, pro-active and able to overcome barriers. Furthermore, this characteristic is sometimes spoken of as N-Ach, or need for achievement. It means that the desire to accomplish something difficult keeps innovators motivated.
5) Innovators Are Resilient and Passionate
Innovators are resilient. Things might not work well on the first try, yet, innovators will take another change. But even before going for the second round, they’ll give failure a hard time as they’re tuff and hard to take down no matter what unexpected troubles arise. It doesn’t matter if it’s a door that is closed in their face, unanswered phone calls or emails, that money is short or a supplier went broke – innovators quickly recover from all adversities, stand up (quickly) and find a new (better) way. This resilience trait is often associated with passion for what they are trying to achieve. A passion that comes from the inner belief that failures and adversities are nothing compared to the value of what innovators are trying to accomplish. This enthusiasm is what keeps them resilient and able to move forward despite all the challenges.