The Big Idea: Innovation... Mindset for Success

 

Introduction

 

The Kindle, iTunes, and the Wii are some of the new innovative products that are changing our lives. Innovations like these drive our economic growth and help America compete in the global economy. While inventions are defined as the creation of something new and unique, innovations are all about combining and improving existing products and systems. Large or small, simple or complex, innovators and their innovations keep our economy going and growing. Let’s view this video clip to see how one product evolved via innovation.

 

Discussion

As we begin today’s workshop, I want you to work with the person sitting next to you to list at least 5 innovative products that have been around 10 years or less. (Give them just 2-3 minutes.) Now that you have your list, let’s see if your innovations are included on the Smartest Products of the Decade from INC magazine. These innovative products have changed our lives.

What would you add to the list? What would you delete from the list?
What is one innovative product or service you can’t live without?
Why are innovations so important?

 

Exercise

Innovations happen when people begin to imagine how to change things and improve things. Innovative thinking helps us develop and build better products, services, and experiences. Innovations can be big or small. Today you are going to be on an innovation team and your team’s goal is to come up with ideas to improve the experiences of a student coming to our college campus for the first time. Since all of you have been there and done that, you undoubtedly have ideas on how to make it better.

• Distribute Wouldn’t It Be Great If activity and review the directions.
• Give students 5-10 minutes to work with their teams and come up with ideas.
• Have each group share their best ideas.
• Explain that they worked on the first couple of steps in the innovative thinking process. They defined the problem, researched the problem (their own experience), and brainstormed improvements. The rest of the innovative process would include choosing an idea to try, implementing the idea, and then learning and improving the idea/process.

Additional Things to Do

Businesses all over the world are looking to hire innovative employees. After working on improving a student experience, you have a better idea of what characteristics or behaviors an innovator needs. Let’s put together a list of those traits. I am going to use a new innovative product called Wordle that will improve the design of our list. (Click on create list and enter the traits as the students call them out. Then click go, to show a preview of your poster. Now you can use the menu bar to change the layout, font, and colors ... to improve the poster.) So, if you want to land that great job or move up in your workplace, these are the innovative behaviors and skills you need to develop.

 

Support Sites

Here are a few additional sites to explore to learn more about innovation. Inc. Magazine has a fun online game to play called Great Garage Hunt that calls on players to find hidden clues to innovative companies. (If you have any extra time, this is fun to do with a group.) In addition, Institute of Design at Stanford University, IDEO, and Design Continuum are all organizations that help drive innovation. Bill Gates, one of today’s great innovators, has this to say, “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” Would you agree? Why?

 

 

Big Ideas is brought to you by the California Community College Chancellor's Office Statewide Advisory Committee for Career Development. Please contact Rita Jones (rjones@occ.cccd.edu), of the statewide Career Development Advisory Committee with any questions