The year is 2011 and it is my firm belief that today's economic conditions call for serial innovation. What I am talking about is not just about one or two or a hundred wonderful ideas - we have that NOW. It is about keeping those ideas flowing - like riding those waves in an ocean - fall down to try again, and again, and again. Where one ends, the others begins. We cannot and should not stop at one brilliant idea, or two - we need these WAVES! We need serial innovation.
Innovation occurs at the grass roots, within individuals, within the four walls of small businesses. However, industry consolidation has either consumed or devoured small businesses, leaving a void that is not getting any help from a sputtering economy!
Have we just been checkmated?
If you've taken the Art Institutes' Right Brain vs Left Brain Creativity Test, you have definitely read this statement - "Being creative or artistic doesn’t mean you know how to draw or play an instrument. Being creative is a way of thinking, a way of viewing the world." How right they are.
However, to get to this creative state of mind, it needs to start with the individual. Formal education and industry experience can take us just that far. There are other frontiers that we need to transcend before each one of us can become an innovation factory.
As Deepak Chopra says, "Love stillness and imagination are the soul of genius." There is a lot happening around us, every day, with every passing minute. Imagination alone can get lost in all the confusion. We need a way to channel it. We need to still the mind first. And this is not easy!