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INDIVIDUAL ADVISOR

Part II: A Deeper Look



Your Exploring Profile


The Four Innovation Styles:
A Quick Overview

What are your most effective
ways to engage in innovation?

How can you contribute
to team synergy?

How can you best generate
innovative ideas?

What do you bring to developing
and presenting a concept?

What learning opportunities
enhance your innovativeness?

What kind of assignments
energize your innovativeness?
2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.
2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.
2
The Four Innovation Styles
A Quick Overview

Recognizing the different ways we like to innovate is a key to working together successfully in a team
or in an organization. We all have our own unique approach to meeting a creative challenge, using our
own mixture of four Innovation Styles: Visioning, Modifying, Exploring, and Experimenting. To nur-
ture a healthy team environment for innovation, each approach must be recognized, valued, and put to
its best use while practicing versatility among all four approaches.


How do you approach the
innovation process?

Modifying and Visioning
styles are more focused,
well-planned, and
results-oriented

VISIONING

People who have
Visioning profiles like to
imagine an ideal future
and let long-term goals
be their guide
they envision and idealize


What stimulates your
innovative thinking?

Visioning and Exploring
styles primarily use intuition,
insights, and images

MODIFYING

People who have
Modifying profiles like to
refine and improve what
has already been done
they refine and optimize





EXPLORING

People who have
Exploring profiles like to
discover radically new
and novel possibilities
they challenge and discover

What stimulates your
innovative thinking?

Experimenting and Modifying
styles primarily use facts,
details, and analysis
EXPERIMENTING

People who have
Experimenting profiles
like to test out various
combinations of new ideas
and learn from the results
they combine and test
How do you approach the
Innovation process?

Exploring and Experimenting
styles are more broad, per-
ceptive, and learning-oriented
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2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.
Individual Advisor
Your Exploring Profile
Part II: A Deeper Look

Part I of your Individual Advisor At-a-Glance gave you a bullet-point over-
view of your Exploring Innovation Styles Profile. Now, in Part II, lets take a
deeper look and see even more ways that you can optimize your innovative-
ness and develop versatility in all four styles.

In addition to this booklet, there is also a personalized coaching slide deck
that you can use to stimulate your learning. This slide deck can be used as a
self-study guide or with your coach or mentor.

As you begin to take a deeper look at your profile, remember these ways to
best utilize your feedback:
Identify and leverage your strengths
Use the Keys to determine ways you can improve your innovative-
ness
Discuss your feedback with others, focusing on how you can optimize
your versatility
Identify 2 or 3 ways you intend to put this feedback into practice
Do a personal check-up every week or two, and set new goals as you
grow

Look for the KEYS throughout your profile they
will give you ideas for unlocking your innovative
potential as well as becoming more versatile in
your innovative thinking!
2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.
4

When working on an innovation challenge, people tend to emphasize one of
two approaches: focused or broad. With your preference for Exploring, your
tendency is to emphasize:
a broad, perceptive, and learning-oriented approach: staying open to
new learning experiences while frequently changing points of view

In addition, innovative thinking can be stimulated and inspired by two gen-
eral kinds of input: (1) facts, details, and analysis; and (2) intuition, insights,
and images. Most people start with one of these two sources, and later call
upon the other to get a well-balanced picture. With your particular emphasis
on Exploring, your innovative thinking is likely to be inspired by intuition, in-
sights, and images, which you use to:
question assumptions
discover new and novel possibilities
















The challenge you face is that you might frequently
change target and direction and might fail to leverage
work already done. If you ever feel stuck in the innovation process, one key is
to give yourself a whole new perspective by:
entertaining a focused approach: looking toward a specific optimized,
short-term outcome result
pursuing facts, details, and analysis to understand past/present cir-
cumstances and determine priorities for improvement
Individual Advisor
WHAT ARE
YOUR MOST
EFFECTIVE
WAYS TO
ENGAGE IN
INNOVATION?
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2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.

Whenever a new group or team is formed, the question naturally arises,
How can we work best together to achieve our goals? Each Innovation
Style brings important points of view to consider in answering this question.
Given your Exploring tendencies, you can contribute to the group synergy
by asking:
What would be a revolutionary way of organizing ourselves as a
team?

















The Exploring profile also has two secondary styles that sometimes come
into the picture (youll notice in your profile that you have Visioning and Ex-
perimenting scores that are almost equal). Depending on the mix of the
group, you may want to draw from these secondary styles to also ask:
How can we work together as a world class innovation team?
What work practices can we combine, drawing from different
sources?

When your group is deciding on how it wants to work together, you have the
potential to add a sense of adventure and open up the possibility for dra-
matic breakthroughs. You can also help foster the perfect team climate by
striving to have it include:
the autonomy to respond to unplanned situations
a focus on solutions that represent new assumptions and novel ideas
a commitment to discovering new territory
a sense of adventure
Individual Advisor
Striving to work together as a
world-class team
Combining best practices from
many different sources
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HOW CAN YOU
CONTRIBUTE
TO TEAM
SYNERGY?
2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.
6

If there are members of your group that lean toward Visioning, they will want
to converge on a comprehensive long-term vision, while those members of
your group that lean toward Modifying will want to converge on ways to opti-
mize short-term opportunities, sometimes well before you feel ready to
make a decision. Dont let yourself get frustrated with these more conver-
gent styles; instead use your intuition to keep opening up new ideas and
possibilities until the full range of options have been explored.

Most importantly, if your innovativeness seems stifled, find ways to cultivate
the kind of group environment where you can venture into unknown territory
to discover what is possible. That means an environment which encourages:
freedom to be spontaneous and flexible in doing work
a focus on novel perspectives and imaginative solutions
learning new skills




The key here is to not take conflicts personally, and to
find ways that work for each person. Remember, it is
really about preferences, so be patient with those who want:
a detailed plan by which work is managed
a commitment to valuing what already exists

And be tolerant of those who:
want a tight structure for organizing work
seem close-minded and not adventurous
say, Youre not focused Youre always flying off in a new direction


Individual Advisor
HOW CAN YOU
CONTRIBUTE
TO TEAM
SYNERGY?
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2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.

Each of the four Innovation Styles asks its own specific set of questions to
stimulate new, innovative ideas. For each style, the wording of the questions
may vary depending on the situation, but the essential strategy of innovative
thinking remains true to the style. With your Exploring style, your first im-
pulse when approaching an innovation challenge will likely be:
Lets question our assumptions and see whats possible.

Since you like ideas that are rule-changing, adventurous, revolutionary, and
unique, you might begin your search by asking:
What unknown territory can we venture into?

When you are actually generating possible solutions, you will be inclined to
ask:
What would be radically new and different?
How can we turn conventional wisdom upside down?
What is a metaphor for this that prompts new and unusual ideas?

















At times you may also want to draw from your secondary styles and ask
questions such as:
What is the ideal long-term solution?
What can we combine to put together a new solution?



Individual Advisor
What do we really wish we
could achieve?
How can we include a broad
range of others ideas?
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HOW CAN
YOU BEST
GENERATE
INNOVATIVE
IDEAS?
2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.
8

As you focus on a wide array of innovation challenges, heres how to lever-
age your Exploring strengths:
If you are doing strategic planning, be sure to inquire:
How could we rewrite the rules of competition?

If you are developing new products or services, be sure to look for:
What could break the rules of the ways things have to be in
our industry?

If you are improving work processes, be sure to seek out:
What could totally re-engineer our processes and practices?




The key to fostering the most comprehensive as well as
creative set of solutions to innovation challenges is for
you to go beyond your favorite questions and be sure to ask:
What can we do to refine and optimize what weve already invested
in?
What has been done before that we can improve upon?
What would simplify this?

Perhaps the greatest obstacles to generating new ideas are idea-killers:
statements we make that judge new ideas (our own or others), usually with-
out giving the new ideas a chance to be fully thought out. In this regard, you
could have a tendency to censor your own ideas, or object to others ideas,
that seem to you to be:
too conventional not expansive enough too much like the status
quo

Based on your secondary styles, and depending on the nature of the chal-
lenge you are facing, you might also censor ideas that seem to you to be:
too timid not bold enough too limited
too idealistic unlikely to happen too risky without testing it first

If you only focus on your favorite Exploring style, you will miss the opportu-
nity to generate a well-rounded set of solutions. Rather than objecting to
ideas that seem too conventional, the key is for you to patiently include
ideas that:
focus on realistic, short-term success
build on what others have done, without reinventing the wheel
Individual Advisor
HOW CAN
YOU BEST
GENERATE
INNOVATIVE
IDEAS?
9
2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.

New projects create change for the managers who approve them. New
products create change for the customers who buy them. Whether youre
proposing a new project to your boss or a new product to your customer
either formally in a proposal, or informally remember: they have their own
ways of approaching innovation and change (i.e., their own Innovation Style
preferences). They will want to hear how your concept fits with their own
approach to innovation and change.

Given your emphasis on the Exploring style, when you develop and present
a concept your tendency is to clarify:
how it is radically new and distinct



















Remember that your listeners also have their Innovation
Style preferences. They will want to hear how your con-
cept fits with their own approach to innovation and change. If you only em-
phasize how your style approaches the idea, you might miss giving your
listeners what they also want to hear. Therefore, the key for you in develop-
ing and presenting the most complete, well-rounded concept is to be sure
that it also states:
how it taps into your listeners aspirations
how it provides workable and credible solutions
how it builds on what you are already doing
Individual Advisor
How it taps into your
listeners aspirations
How it provides workable and
credible solutions
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WHAT DO YOU
BRING TO
DEVELOPING
AND
PRESENTING
A CONCEPT?
2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.
10

Learning stimulates innovation. Learning is like the inhale of breath, while
innovation is like the exhale we need a rhythm of both to be at our innova-
tive best. When it comes to learning opportunities, you will typically choose
those that:
provide the opportunity to learn new skills
offer personal growth experiences without pre-planned goals

Secondarily, you might also engage in learning where you can:
directly relate to achieving a bold vision for the future
gain practical, up-to-date knowledge




















The key to rounding out your learning is to also be open
to opportunities that build upon and refine current skills.


Individual Advisor
WHAT
LEARNING
OPPORTUNI-
TIES ENHANCE
YOUR INNO-
VATIVENESS?
Learning that directly relates to
achieving a bold vision for the future
Learning that offers practical,
up-to-date knowledge
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2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.

Certainly, we all prefer work assignments that are meaningful and fit our
skills, interests and personal values. In addition, when those assignments
require innovative thinking (as most assignments do), we are at our best
when the nature of the assignment fits our preferred ways of approaching
innovation.

With your preference for Exploring, you will want to seek out new assign-
ments that require:
new and novel approaches to handling a challenge
allow working in spurts on whatever seems intriguing
decisions that incorporate many new perspectives and alternatives

Secondarily, based on your inclinations in the moment and the nature of the
assignment itself, you might also feel inspired by assignments that require:
well-planned progress towards an ideal, far-reaching outcome
practical ways to overcome barriers to progress


















Of course, it may not be possible to have assignments
that provide these types of opportunities all the time.
While you may not be thrilled with the idea, a key to help you optimize your
own (and your groups) innovativeness is to be a willing contributor when a
project requires standard approaches to improvement, with a single, best
solution.
Individual Advisor
Independent, futuristic thinking
Putting together various elements
in new combinations
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WHAT KIND
OF ASSIGN-
MENTS ENER-
GIZE YOUR
INNOVATIVE-
NESS?
2007 Global Creativity Corporation. All rights reserved.

Innovation Stylesis a trademark of the Global Creativity Corp.
12




Being innovative is not rocket science. Remember, by
emphasizing your own Innovation Style strengths while
also developing your versatility in all four Innovation Styles, you will enhance
your ability to generate innovative solutions to your work challenges and
bring out the innovative best in everyone you work with.

To support your continued learning, you can contact your Innovation Styles
Practitioner, who can provide you with a wealth of resources, such as the
Team Advisor feedback, coaching materials, workshops, pocket cards,
games and more.












Individual Advisor
IN
CONCLUSION

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