4/18/12

Got innovation potential?

How are you coping with the pressure to "innovate or die"?  Is it motivating or overwhelming you at your core?

Art Markman, PhD, recently penned a wonderful (and succinct) POV on the topic for MonsterThinking. I excerpt below:
[There] are three characteristics that — when found together — are good predictors of someone’s innovation potential. These characteristics are based on the idea that good innovators know a lot about a wide variety of domains and they are good at using that knowledge when faced with a new problem.
  • Openness. Openness is one of the five basic personality characteristics. People who are open are willing to try out new experiences and new ideas. ...
  • A need for cognition. Need for cognition refers to how much someone really likes to think about things. When combined with openness, the high need for cognition ensures that someone not only considers an idea, but they think it through carefully. ...
  • An ability to use analogies to solve problems. As I discuss in my book “Smart Thinking,” analogies allow people who are solving a problem in one area to draw on their knowledge of another area. ...
Art Markman, PhD, is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, and the director of the program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations. He has written over 125 research papers on topics related to thinking including reasoning, decision making and motivation. He blogs frequently for Psychology Today, Huffington Post, and Harvard Business Review. His latest book is called “Smart Thinking.”
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View the post on MonsterThinking here.

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