You’re looking to develop your innovation skills. What’s the best way to start?

💡 In my experience, a strong purpose fuels innovation. 🔍 Core Motivation Define your personal and professional drivers for innovation. Is it a desire to solve a critical problem, improve efficiency, or create entirely new solutions? 🌱 Aligned Values Ensure your innovation efforts align with your organization's mission and values. This fosters support and promotes a culture of innovation within your team. 📊 Impact Measurement Consider how you'll measure the impact of your innovations. This helps gauge success and demonstrates the value you bring through your innovative thinking. 📌 "Know your 'why' to innovate effectively.

My personal view would be : 1. Explore the Unknown: Ask questions, peek behind curtains, and wonder, "What if?" 2. Question Everything: Don't settle for "because that's how it's always been." Challenge the status quo. 3. Dream Big: Picture a world where cars fly, trees talk, and socks never vanish in the laundry. Then, channel that dreamer energy into action. 4. Hierarchy Takes a Backseat: Encourage everyone to speak up, share ideas, and wear creative crowns. 5. Idea Picnics: Create platforms for sharing insights. Celebrate diverse perspectives. 6. Break Silos: Promote collaboration is the secret sauce for success . Most importantly "Keep Curiosity Alive" .....

Innovation is often necessary for companies to adapt and overcome the challenges of change. It fosters growth: Achieving organizational and economic growth through innovation is key to staying afloat in today's highly competitive world. Innovative problem-solving is not just about finding quick fixes to immediate challenges. It requires thinking outside the box, breaking free from traditional thought patterns, and exploring unconventional solutions. Innovation often involves transforming creative ideas into new solutions that drive business growth, improve efficiency, and meet customers' changing needs while improving decision-making and problem-solving across the organization.

Using executive innovation skills effectively, follow these steps: 1. Foster a culture of creativity & openness to new ideas within your team or organization. 2. Encourage brainstorming sessions & idea generation exercises to spark innovation 3. Stay informed about industry trends & emerging technologies to identify opportunities for innovation 4. Set clear goals & objectives for innovation projects and provide the necessary resources and support 5. Empower your team members to take risks & experiment with new ideas 6. Collaborate with colleagues & external partners to bring fresh perspectives and expertise to the innovation process 7. Evaluate & iterate on your innovation strategies to ensure they are aligned with your business objectives

The WHY is becoming even more important when hiring younger generations. A powerful WHY can motivate in good times and be a beacon of hope in hard times. In my experience, a good WHY helps enable team members to work more independently as they see the organization's intention and direction. A why should not be too general. Having multiple layers of WHY that are aimed toward projects, etc, can be a good idea.

From my personal experience, I suggest pursuing a mindset shift towards curiosity and openness to new ideas, which is crucial in our own learning curve. Engage in personal and professional activities like brainstorming, problem-solving, ask for advice; and seek a diverse perspective for the best outcomes. Additionally, read up on topics such as innovation, taking courses, and participating in workshops or innovation challenges that perpetuate development, clarity, knowledge, and skills. Practice experimentation and don’t fear failure; as failure harbors success. I call this a pivotal stepping stone toward innovation. Enjoy the journey!

• Define your innovation goals and strategy. Before you start generating ideas, you need to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, why, and how. • Foster a culture of innovation. • Apply design thinking and agile methods. • Learn from failures and successes. • Collaborate and network with others.

Connect with professionals who are actively involved in innovation. Attend networking events, join innovation communities, and engage in conversations with people who share an interest in creative problem-solving.

Don’t try to reinvent wheels. Just look for new ways to make them spin. You can take an already working business model, project etc and put your spin on it with improvements.

Unfortunately, the higher in an organization you go, while the job requires more strategic and proactive thinking than operational thinking, it's unavoidable that your team will bring challenging issues for you to react to, dragging your energy and focus towards the short-term. This is why it's even more important to protect your calendar and build in time to update yourself via reading, catching up with another industry expert, connecting with your "board of directors" or "executive coach", take a new class for a new skill or anything that rejuvenates you. Recruit the help of others who can help protect your calendar and even build it into your team culture to do so.

The final step is to validate your innovation assumptions, or test them with real evidence from your customers and the market. There are different ways to do this, depending on the type and stage of your innovation, such as interviews, surveys, experiments, prototypes, landing pages, or minimum viable products (MVPs)

In full transparency, I have been there and understand challenging your assumptions is a barrier often in many scenarios. I have checked that box! So, let's dive into some solutions which I found most intriguing for the ongoing learning curve. Reverse thinking and pursue solutions to achieve goals, brainstorming with a diverse group of people, ask the why question to promote deeper dives, insights and involvement, ask for honest "real" feedback, act on the feedback, know it's perfectly fine to use analogies for comparison, and certainly challenge status quo. I suggest incorporating some of these strategies during the thought process will challenge your assumptions and help the effectiveness for growth and innovation.

A good tool i use to challenge my assumptions or think from a different perspective is to use the "TRIZ 40 cards". These cards present 40 ideas that include "divide it", "separate it", "create rotation", " accept a rough solution", etc.... It really gives a different perspective.

• Ask questions: Foremost, idea people are curious people. • Write Your Ideas Down: Creative people keep lists and notes. • Think Associatively: Many ideas are the result of associative thinking. • Put Ideas to the Test: Innovators know the importance of experimentation.

Engage in divergent thinking and explore various concepts. Sketch rough drawings, create mind maps, or use design thinking techniques to stimulate creativity. By embracing different perspectives and possibilities, you increase your chances of creating an innovative and effective prototype.

Try it yourself before suggesting in a bigger group. Do a beta of your product, app, process ...etc. invite your closer circle to test it. Sometimes when you say it out loud from experience it is not as good as it sounds in your head.

One additional thought to share, be genuine, add some responsible fun, remain accountable to your responsibilities, be competitive, seek consistency, be collaborative, and do not allow fear of change captivate you. I have shared with my family and teams, "Change is necessary. Change is near. Change is made, or you remain in FEAR! Embrace the CHANGE!" The outcome on the other side of change can be gratifying, yet your actions during change are paramount.

La innovación va estrechamente relacionada con la creatividad. En mi experiencia he aprendido que las mejores ideas llegan cuando estás fuera del entorno rutinario de la operación del día. Buscar espacios que te desconecten temporalmente de la rutina ayuda a generar nuevas ideas sobre cómo hacer las cosas de forma diferente. Desafiar constantemente las creencias y buscar más de una solución a los problemas es una fórmula que en lo personal me ha ayudado en el proceso de innovación.

The best way to start would be: 1. Immerse in Emerging Technologies. 2. Expand Strategic Thinking: Participate in executive education programs or strategy workshops that focus on innovation management and long-term planning. 3. Foster a Culture of Innovation: Encourage a mindset of continuous improvement and openness to new ideas within your organization. 4. Engage for Impact and Adapt Proactively. 5. Visionary Leadership: Develop the ability to envision the future of the industry. 6. Technical and Digital Proficiency: Gain a robust understanding of current and emerging technologies to assess the feasibility of new 7. Strategic Execution: Be skilled in designing and implementing effective innovation strategies.

In today's fast-paced world, cultivating innovation skills is paramount for anyone looking to lead and excel. Embracing change and stepping out of one's comfort zone are foundational in taking risks that pave the way for groundbreaking discoveries. Collaboration with diverse groups enriches this process by bringing in fresh perspectives, while challenging existing norms and practices unlocks potential for transformative solutions. Setting ambitious goals encourages pushing beyond conventional boundaries, and a commitment to experimentation fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement. At the heart of innovation lies a deep-seated curiosity—an eagerness to explore and question the world around us.

To improve your ability to innovate, start by embracing curiosity. Seek out new perspectives, engage in creative activities, and don't shy away from trying new things. Learn from your mistakes, collaborate with others, and be open to feedback. By adopting a mindset focused on exploration and learning, you'll become more adept at generating innovative ideas and solutions. #ahmedalaali11