When we run the "Idea lab" and the "Opportunity Clinic" sessions, we take advantage of the brain's inherent properties of "pattern formation" and pattern recognition". As a starting point, we focus on the 9 possible area(s) of unknowns (potentially ranging from ambiguity to complexity and uncertainty) taking you from a stage of confusion and chaos to insight and clarity.
The New York Times today supports this tactic, stating the following:
"Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. "Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd," William Wordsworth said in the 19th century."
"Brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks."
"Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try - the more we step outside our comfort zone - the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives. But don't bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the hippocampus, they're there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately ingrain into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads."
"The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder," ...[...]... But we are taught instead to 'decide...[...]... however, "to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities."
All of us work through problems in ways of which we're unaware. Researchers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively...[...]...However, the brain shuts down half of that capacity, preserving only those modes of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life."
The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought. "This breaks the major rule in the American belief system - that anyone can do anything," ..[..].. "That's a lie that we have perpetuated, and it fosters mediocrity. Knowing what you're good at and doing even more of it creates excellence."
This is where developing new habits comes in. If you're an analytical or procedural thinker, you learn in different ways than someone who is inherently innovative or collaborative. Figure out what has worked for you when you've learned in the past, and you can draw your own map for developing additional skills and behaviors for the future.
The NYT also warns:
Simultaneously, take a look at how colleagues approach challenges...[...]... We tend to believe that those who think the way we do are smarter than those who don't. That can be fatal in business, particularly for executives who surround themselves with like-thinkers. If seniority and promotion are based on similarity to those at the top, chances are strong that the company lacks intellectual diversity.
[N.B.....that's why we employ various learning style and thinking style instruments in the Idea Lab--Walter Derzko]
Finally, it concludes:
"You cannot have innovation, unless you are willing and able to move through the unknown (confusion stage) and go from curiosity to wonder."
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