"...innovation is based on a number of tools and processes which can be learned, and is enabled through looking at a problem through a number of different perspectives, or imagining new perspectives, which is all that artists try to do."
via www.business-strategy-innovation.com
If you're struggling with understanding just how innovation can be cultivated, read Jeffrey Phillips entry above.
I like to describe innovation as a discipline; An exercise in the practice of melding the known with the unknown. Artists understand how to create intuitively, but only because they've been rewarded through the years by the results of what they've created.
Beginning with a foundational base of facts, data, processes - pretty much anything we know about a subject, and working with these in an interdependent, creative fashion you will begin to see the 'artist' in yourself or your fellow employees. Be patient, it won't happen without the time being set aside and the work being done.
It helps to have time outside of your regular work environment, to travel, see and experience new objects, tastes and sounds as well as finding any way possible to keep the idea-generation team focused.
Not everyone is able to make the time for regular innovation or develop this side of themselves. This obviously depends on what stage someone is at in their own career or the state of their business.
Right and left brain work is not easy, but the payoff is huge. Innovation should be looked at as a regular program of maintenance for the health of your business and the life of your offerings.
