Lessons Learned in 2006

Last month Chuck Frey of Innovation Tools asked innovators from around the world: “What is the most important lesson you learned regarding innovation during 2006?" I answered with the following reflection:

THE BALANCED BRAIN APPROACH TO INNOVATION

The big learning for me in 2006, after several years of working with clients on the adoption of different approaches to innovation, is that innovation is not "the next thing you do." Rather, "it is about everything that you do.

While the train has been coming for some time, I felt a little like we were "pushing innovation" and that it wasn't naturally fitting into my clients' businesses. I finally realized that we didn't need to change what we do, but instead we needed to incorporate innovation into everything that we already do.

I also came to realize that while we were very focused on innovation methodologies, we weren't spending enough time focusing on activation of the right side of the brain, resulting more of a whole-brain kind of approach to decision making in business. We've changed all that and now we're trying to help others achieve balance between the right and left side of the brain, because we think the market is at risk of letting the pendulum swing as far right as it swung left during the era of continuous improvement.

You see, continuous improvement, process excellence, call it what you may, has gone too far in teaching us that all we need is the left side of our brain to be effective; that's simply not true. Whether taking a methodical, data driven approach to things, or applying years of experience and intuition, we need a well-balanced application of our cognitive powers to achieve optimal results.

Chuck’s complete list of lessons learned can be found here.