Executives are expected to set concrete objectives and create details, step-by-step plans to reach them. This approach may satisfy short-term considerations like quarterly earnings reports, but it produces modest innovation and evolutionary development at best.
As a result, the business can find itself in a performance plateau that it cannot seem to break out of.
Ingenuity and creativity are often considered something you either have or don't have...some say you're born with them or you're not. Ingenuity and creativity are a state of mind and yes, they are learned.
Success (or failure) is shaped not only by our experiences, but also by how we interpret and respond to those experiences.
Author Stephen Covey distinguishes between mental and physical creation, referring to the former as "first creation" and the latter as "second creation." The more potential we access, the greater the "first creation" (the idea we come up with) will be. Then we take action to convert the first creation into the second creation (the innovation itself).
In order to make the right decisions when transitioning between first and second creation, we must understand that sometimes the risk of doing nothing actually outweighs the risk of failure.
Innovative companies understand that "fail fast" doesn't mean fail on purpose. It means creating a smooth transition between first and second creation, and producing more workable second creations with an acceptable margin of risk.
In fact, self-control and mental discipline actually increase creativity and improve its application. A bold mind is also a controlled mind.
In "Your Creative Mind: How to Disrupt Your Thinking, Abandon Your Comfort Zone, and Develop Bold New Strategies", author Scott Cochrane details an entirely different approach to the creative process that helps companies increase revenues, reduce turnover and optimize productivity.
Source: Scott Cochrane: Your Creative Mind: How to Disrupt Your Thinking, Abandon Your Comfort Zone, and Develop Bold New Strategies
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