Shifting dynamics in innovation | Paul4innovating Innovation Views

Innovators need to heighten sensory intelligence and cognitive abilities.

Understanding the sensory and cognitive abilities of innovators

Following on from my first post on building an Innovator’s Sensory profile, the combination of various cognitive, emotional and environmental factors heightens our awareness, so I needed to explore this further in this post.

I wanted to build out some thinking based on the question, “Can we unlock the innovator’s potential through understanding their sensory and cognitive abilities?”

It is our ability to develop the capacities to learn, absorb and interpret information and how this all interacts becomes the essential interplay that can give us a continuous feedback loop, shaping perceptions, thoughts and actions. This shapes what we do and how we can respond to navigate an increasingly dynamic and ever-changing world.

The recognized simpler view of innovators having essential cognitive skills is made up of generally needing to associate, question, observe, network and experiment and should be part of the innovator’s DNA. I would argue we need to go deeper to build out innovators’ skills and abilities to provide distinctive value; value gives us worth!

So, what contributes to having enhanced innovation capabilities to gain a potential competitive advantage?

Discover your unique innovator’s Sensory Profile.

I had a most enjoyable and rewarding conversation last week on Innovation and Ecosystem design. It was partly through this conversation with Margot Nijkamp-Diesfeld and Rick Wielens of the Eco System Thinking Institute (ESTI), based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, that we got into the subject of creating different workshop concepts to stimulate those attending and draw out their greater awareness.

The idea of using all our sensory experiences came up, and I started to think, is there such a thing as having an innovator’s sensory profile? Would they be unique and help to unleash your inner innovator?

Should innovators be more attuned to details, nuances and changes in their environment, potentially allowing them to gather and process information uniquely to generate new insights and make more significant connections?

Over two posts, firstly here, I want to outline what might be in the attributes of an innovator’s sensory profile and in the second post following, the dynamics between sensory awareness and cognitive functions to realize the interconnected nature in seeing the shaping of our worlds in new and potentially radically different ways.

Embrace AI-driven innovation, it is the future.

Embrace the future of AI-driven innovation.

It has been amazing how AI generative thinking (GenAI) has taken hold. It has only been one year since the launch of ChatGPT, then with a follow-up of GPT-4. In a really fascinating routine or guide to how Generative AI developed, then you should read Bernard Marr’s post It is well worth the read.

As he points out, “Today, Generative AI stands as a testament to the power of human imagination and technological innovation. It has grown from humble beginnings into a sophisticated technology capable of producing remarkable output.”

As Barnard Marr opens his post “Generative AI has the unique ability to create. It can generate new content like audio, art, and text, all by learning from a set of data without explicit instructions.” I feel “explicit instructions” need to be carefully managed.

For me, the last six months or so I have been working with ChatGPT to learn different ways to look at focus areas I spend in advising and mentoring and where innovation links into my different work.

This is rethinking the innovation process, how ecosystem thinking and design can shape our collaborative worlds differently, looking much harder at innovation ecosystems and applying different triggers of thought in how AI generative thinking will influence and shape much of the Energy Transition, as my endpoints.

Recently, I have been looking specifically at the way the (traditional) innovation management process will change. The deployment of AI-driven thinking utterly alters my perspective of “delivering” innovation.

Our Need Is To Shape Innovation Dynamically.

In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, the ability to build a strong case, stay informed, and think critically is the key to unlocking success and driving innovation.

For me, this landscape is marked by its dynamism. Here, market trends evolve, new technologies emerge, and consumer preferences shift lightning-fast.

In this environment, success isn’t just about being prepared for change; it’s about actively shaping it. But how can you empower those responsible for innovation to not only navigate this terrain but thrive within it?

We need to navigate a very different terrain that requires a deeper investment in skill development in a culture of continual learning.

Innovating the future by combining humans, technology, and AI

The interplay potential in exploring the combination of humans, technology and AI

This interplay between humans, technology, and AI is dynamic and involves continuous interaction, collaboration, and feedback between these elements. The future of innovation, by combining these, offers a very rich promise to provide a fascinating and different future.

Firstly, this interplay needs some higher-level thinking to put some insights into what this interplay might look like and lead to:

The future interplays between design thinking, technology and AI

Exploring the interplay between Humans, Technology and AI for design thinking

Why is design thinking regarded as so crucial to the future of innovation in a world of accelerating interplays between humans, technology and generative AI?

By embracing Design Thinking principles differently in the future of innovation, organizations can foster a more profound culture of creativity, empathy, collaboration, and user-centricity. This can lead to the development of innovative solutions that address real-world problems while considering the interplays between humans, technology, and generative AI.

Firstly, we have the interconnected global marketplace as our context

The change toward an interconnected and conscious global marketplace has been of significant importance, reshaping business strategies, consumer expectations, and societal values.

Has innovation changed over the last ten years?

Innovation is certainly a complex and dynamic process that involves many factors and actors and I certainly feel it has been shifting in its focus. I have been thinking of where we have been placing the emphasis over the past ten years.

I decided to ask GPT-4 what major shifts have occurred in how we approached innovation ten years ago and today. It was suggested that these were the following.

Do you agree, what do you feel is missing? I like the broad shifts indicated but what has been missed?

Visiting the dark side of the innovation moon.

I wrote a post in June 2012 on thinking about the dark side of the innovation moon. As India quite rightly celebrates its first landing in lunar exploration, near the south pole of the moon, the dark side, it prompted me to look back at this post and decide to republish this again here.

Have you ever wondered what is on the other side of the moon when you look up towards it? Do we need to look beyond our horizons in our daily lives? Should we question beyond our existing horizons in how we innovate, explore, and push ourselves into the unknown?

What about the other side, the darker, unknown side of the moon? Are you ever curious about what lies behind what we can see? I certainly am.

Innovation is perhaps like the moon. We only see a part of it wherever we stand; we appreciate that part and value what we see and work within. It is even better if we can repeat it again and again. It can even offer something reassuring and comfortable; we grow comfortable within our known borders of innovation activity.

We need a new Energy Mantra- innovate, innovate, innovate.

Energy is a vital part of any country’s ability to be competitive, and we need to recognize that to innovate is the critical enabler to a clean energy future. Today half the world’s capital is invested in energy and its related infrastructure, which is the backbone of any industrial and urbanization strategy.

We need to keep pushing for discoveries, experimentation, and demonstrating. We must nurture innovation and continuously look for ways to facilitate its pathway in the Energy Transition we are presently travelling.

Our economic prosperity will be determined by transforming the energy sector, and it is through innovation we will achieve this. To avoid the predicted consequences of climate change, the global energy system must rapidly reduce its emissions.

Most global CO2 emissions come from the energy production sector, our buildings or transportation systems, and the making of “things” still from fossil fuels. They all need a purposeful design of a new, cleaner energy system.

Innovation needs to be at the top of its game, to be accelerated and scaled.

Focusing on the Learning Components of the Composable Innovation Framework

Within the Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework lies the core, the different innovation stacks, and the learning components. Here, I want to briefly talk about the importance of the learning components that support the innovation design and especially the different innovation stacks.

The elements of the innovation stack are designed to support innovation’s core tasks, including learning, absorbing, assessing knowledge management, creativity, design, experimentation, and testing. By modularizing these tasks and their interfaces, organizations can assess their innovation progress by having a complete innovation system available to them, designed on specific stack elements to address knowledge operation requirements in the stage of development to commercialization.

The Innovation Stacks are ready to support different steps in the innovation engagement process

Additionally, with the upgrade in technology and platform approach, we can support the rapidly emerging human-AI collaboration needed for each building block and component and provide a step-by-step validation.

Yet it is the sequence of how we learn that becomes vital to “feed” and build the innovation stacks.