5 Innovation Techiques That Can Change Your World

By Nate Desmond

Light Bulb Albert Einstein once defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” While we all nod wisely and agree, truly innovative thinking is much less common than we would like to imagine.

As distance learning students, we have a head start in that we are already thinking outside the box to a certain extent. To continue to think resourcefully, however, we must consciously encourage continual growth.

Here are some practical ways to keep your creative juices flowing before, during and after your college career.

1. Learn a language

Not only can language study lead to more opportunities for career growth, but the process required to become bilingual will help you grow disciplined and expand your general knowledge base. Since much of our ability to solve problems comes through comparing new problems with known solutions, learning a second language will help you hone your analytical skills.

From living in another country for a few months to studying on Rosetta Stone, many options are available for modern language learners.

2. Study another industry

Learning your main industry well is a basic requirement of innovative thinking. Once you have that fairly mastered, however, you can increase your edge by learning another industry well enough to start drawing parallels. Processes that you previously took for granted will suddenly be challenged as you see potentially better ways to do the same thing.

During college, participating in a variety of internships can help you gain this crucial advantage.

3. Read a book on a completely new topic

Just as we like routine in our daily schedule, we often create a routine for our reading material. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with this, adding variety will help increase the fodder needed for strong innovation.

Ask your friends for a few good recommendations or find a few good online book reviews.

4. Ask questions

One of the simplest and – at the same time – most potent innovation stimulating activities is just asking questions. Look for things that you assume are true and ask why.

One well known example of this technique was the tale of the newly-married couple's ham cooking method. As the wife prepared a roast ham, she cut the end off the ham and discarded it. Interested, her husband asked why removing the end of the ham was important. The wife remembered that she had learned it from her mother, but didn’t remember why her mother hand done so. Both curious now, the couple called up her mother and asked why. To their surprise, the mother wasn’t certain either. She just remembered that it had been passed down from their grandmother. The next time they visited their grandmother, the young couple asked why she cut the end off the ham. “Oh,” replied the grandmother simply, “my pan wasn’t big enough.”

Just become something has “always been that way” doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

5. Stop avoiding failure

One of the biggest deterrents from trying is the fear of failure. As children we are often willing to look silly or make a mistake, but, as we grow older, the pressure to always be right grows stronger. Surprisingly, this very demand to be successful leads to fewer successes. After all, better to never try than to try and fail!

By being willing to step up and fail – repeatedly – we will gain the experience necessary to succeed. Even the most “successful” people don’t find perfection every time. On the contrary, they normally fail more than most people, but they also get back up more frequently than most.

Just make sure that your failures are small enough that you can get back up quickly.

Which of these techniques will you begin applying today?

Nate Desmond I'm a Christian young man working on my BSBA in Accounting and writing blog posts in my spare time. I enjoy learning how to do things faster and better... whether through new keyboard shortcuts, world record holding shoelace knots, or motion study.

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