When you think about how knowledge workers innovate, you're dealing with "horizontal thinking." IBM senior VP Nick Donofrio says that while the 20th century was all about invention, in the 21st century, "innovation will not be that way. Real growth and prosperity will depend on how a business problem is meshed with technology… Using technology to create better innovative applications, that's where inventions will occur.
For example, a supermarket using technology to encourage customers to put
more groceries into their basket. A shopkeeper, being able to identify what his customers are buying and in real-time trigger off instant offers on complementary products, like a wine buyer being induced to buy cheese at a lesser cost than the usual price. True innovation begins at the intersection of invention and insight."
Donofrio notes that the 21st century innovator must be well-versed in technology, but "the problems in the 21st century will not be just engineering problems, they will be more complex business problems." And those will force people to think horizontally and not just vertically.
Economic Times -- "Innovation at IBM: an inside view"
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There was a book I read a long time ago in college call "The Power of zig zag thinking". It never left me. The way innovation, invention and problem solving happens is by shifting modes between deep hard core analysis of a problem and free association thinking about "what if". Getting (at least conciously away from the whole thing is important too. You need both the hours of hard slogging and the hours of care free inattention to end up with the best stuff. Unfortunately, a lot of the best ideas occur during your down time, and they can be ephemeral, so be prepared to write down important points in the middle of the night or out on the town or on the golf course or in the shower.
Posted by: Joe Temple | March 25, 2010 at 08:46 PM
*i like this part of the post.I think a lot of people would be surprised how easy it is to start including fine-motor activities in playtime
Posted by: air jordans | March 16, 2011 at 12:53 AM