3 Steps to Achieve Your Personal Innovation

Today’s reflection is a continuation of the previous

one, in which I encouraged you to build your own map for personal innovation.

This time, I’m going to propose three simple steps for you to start exploring, today, the new realities of the Age of Collaboration.

The journey we are now embarking on is made up of three successive stages, all of them aimed at the search for the emergence of a new state in our lives, both personally and professionally. In short, it is about changing in order to achieve a life that allows you to develop your potential to the fullest.

Personal Innovation Map

The goal of the first stage is to adopt an innovative mindset. This will be our starting point, the observatory that will allow us to explore the new reality, which will help us to develop new perspectives and to begin to glimpse new possible futures. This outburst will inevitably result in an increase in the level of awareness about what we can do, what is possible and what can contribute to our progress in personal innovation.

The second stage is the one that will facilitate true learning, as well as the development of the new skills and habits 2.0 necessary to interact with the new reality.

The third stage is where, strictly speaking, innovation takes place, as we will move from a certain static and predictable level to a much more dynamic one, in which innovation thrives until it becomes a part of our daily lives, our customs and our way of doing things.

The final destination of our journey is none other than to make personal innovation a perpetual process of renewal and self-transformation, as we pointed out in our previous reflection.

1. Start by adopting a personal innovation mindset

To start any journey you always need to take a first step. Let go of the idea that some people are creative and innovative and others are not. Being innovative is not a personality trait, nor is it a markedly innate characteristic. We are all, to a greater or lesser extent, creative and innovative, even if we approach innovation differently.

What distinguishes us is our way of thinking, that is, our attitudes, assumptions and beliefs, as well as the models we have been creating from our experience, from our perception of how the world works.

These mental models are often subconscious. However, they can have a huge impact on our attitude towards innovation. Hence, when it comes to starting our journey, we must do it with the right mindset, with the desire and courage to explore the current reality, to experiment with it in search of new and better ways of doing things.

All of this is impossible if you are not convinced that the result you want to achieve can be achieved, and that it is worth doing. In other words, you need to believe in your own abilities. And that implies that you must be able to maintain your beliefs despite the critics, the skeptics, the pessimists, and, of course, despite the obstacles and setbacks that you will undoubtedly encounter along the way.

It may seem like a harsh outlook, but the good news is that ultimately we are the ones who build our own reality, so a Innovative mindset sustained over time, it ends up being substantiated in real progress; that is, it ends up becoming reality itself, in the manner of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Create the time you need to explore the future. It will be practically impossible for you to analyze the new reality if you remain absorbed in your usual routine. The idea is that, at least for a few hours, you will be able to get out of the demands of “day-to-day” to observe with a certain distance what is happening around you.

Observation – which consists, among other things, of adopting new perspectives, new points of view that, sooner rather than later, end up translating into new ideas – will allow you to reflect on the impact of changes on our value creation models, and will help you define new opportunities for personal development. Observation will also allow you to measure your progress at every step of the journey.

In short, it is about finding new questions. The questions that we did not ask ourselves before, and that are the ones that will allow us to discover innovative solutions to the challenges posed by the Age of Collaboration.

Here are some of the key questions that will allow you to carry out the personal innovation process:

• How to interact with the new social reality?
• How can we prepare ourselves to live in unstable contexts?
• How do you prepare to manage the unpredictable?
• How to develop new personal skills to cope with increasing complexity
• How do we plan for our future when it’s not plannable?
• How to be perceived and valued in a globalized world?
• How do you create time to explore the future?
• How to create the new maps?

2. Reinvent yourself professionally so you don’t run out of future

The first step leads us to the second. This stage of the journey consists of reinvent ourselves professionally and above all as people to rediscover – why not – a new version of ourselves; an improved version, which helps us to be perceived and, above all, to be relevant in the new social context.

To change, we need to modify our behaviors, our skills, and our mindsets. And we know from experience that this is one of the most complicated tasks to carry out, at least on a personal level.

But, as we will see below, we can rely on the teachings of nature, because nature has taught us on many occasions how to solve even the most complex problems.

Biologists use the word evolution to describe the process of continuous adaptation of living things to their environment. To be successful, living things use genetic variation and natural selection based on the best adapted.

Well, interestingly, the evolutionary process is not plannable, but is the emergent result of many trial-and-error tests.

Error is, therefore, an essential part of learning, especially in environments of great complexity and uncertainty. Hence the importance of our tolerance for failure: first of all, we must learn to experiment with many different approaches, to make mistakes and to learn from them, rather than hiding them or denying their existence.

He thinks that the most successful innovations in the business world have been the result of a continuous process of trial and error. And that, in the same way, in the personal sphere, the most successful innovations arise through a process of testing and adaptation, and not, as is sometimes thought, rigid and exhaustive planning.

Summing up, these are the three main lessons we can draw from the adaptive process in nature:

• We must try things even knowing that some may fail.
• We must make it possible to survive in spite of failure, since failure will be frequent.
• We need to make sure we know when we’ve failed, so we can learn from our mistakes.

Skills 2.0. If everything has changed around us, it is clear that we must be able to develop new skills to cope with those changes. The Skills 2.0 label is, precisely, an explicit acknowledgement that the future demands a new version of ourselves; An improved version, characterized by the irruption of new skills that we must necessarily develop. As with technologies, this development is only possible through experimentation and active participation in the Social Web; that is, from the different iterations with the new reality, each of which will allow us to learn to continue improving.

The truth is that we have been educated for stability, and that, in general, we have developed the necessary skills to live and progress in familiar territories. However, today we find ourselves in a completely different scenario, one of uncertainty and accelerated change. A scenario that, on a personal level, requires us to move from the “management of the known” to the “management of the unknown”.

It is true that until now we have learned to grow up “isolated”, each in his city, in his home, in his office, in his fish tank, in his functional silo. But the good news, the exceptional news of the Age of Collaboration is that, for the first time in human history, we can all be connected, and that allows us to access a higher level of collective intelligence.

I am convinced that if we are truly able to connect to this impressive source of knowledge, we will be able to change everything.

Accept that the social web is, in a way, the school of your life. A school that has blogs, experiments, experiences… And the best teachers in the world at your disposal, so you can experiment, fail gracefully, and learn from your own mistakes.

By reading this post you have taken a first step, perhaps the most important. Your interest shows that there is something inside you that pushes you to grow and improve. But you should also keep in mind that this is just the first step towards your personal innovation, and that you have a long and exciting road ahead of you.

In the past, we used to stick to known patterns to spot an opportunity. Today, however, such patterns are of no use. The “gift of opportunity” of our time is to recognize that what we don’t know is more important than what we know. And, in a way, it lies in the ability to discard “what has brought us here but no longer serves us.”

Only from there will we be able to explore and interact with the new reality, so that we will be able to learn new things every day.

3. Innovate to grow professionally

Be bold, be curious and experiment. Human beings, like all living beings, are true natural platforms for innovation. It is clear that some people are more adaptable, more predisposed to change, more open to new ideas, and themselves more creative than others. But the truth is that we all have the fundamental ability to be innovative and that we can all be innovative. Grow professionally.

This does not mean that innovation is simple – it requires time and effort – but it does mean that we are in a position to approach innovation in a natural and relaxed way, and that we are fully capable of enjoying ourselves while innovating.

Overcome the fear of failure and making mistakes. Don’t get obsessed with making everything perfect the first time: it’s impossible. Eliminates pressure. Consider that your decisions are temporary, and that later you will return to them again.

Be tolerant of your mistakes. Leave “risk management” to the banks. There is no greater risk today than sitting still watching others decide your life.

Remember that if you don’t have a personal agenda, there’s a good chance you’re part of someone else’s agenda.

Dare to try new things on a small enough scale so that failure doesn’t become a matter of survival. Throw your “lifeboat“, or in other words, introduce small innovation initiatives into your life that allow you to experience emerging trends without negatively affecting the stability of your personal “aircraft carrier”. In this way, you will be able to continue on your path without compromising your fundamental objectives, while creating the new skills that will help you ensure your future employability.

He believes that the coexistence of both models – the traditional one and the innovation model, each with its own goals and, many times, with different life cycles – allows us to manage the risks of innovation much more effectively.

Participate in conversations, simply because sharing creates value. Innovation is a collaborative process. Our ideas must converge and conflict with other ideas so that, from there, new ideas emerge, in a similar way to how it happens every day between the neural networks of our brain.

It’s about creating value in every comment, in every chat, or in every conversation you have with someone, even if it’s a person you’ve just met. He thinks that communication is the essence of personal transformation and renewal. And that value creation is based on your experience and knowledge: the more knowledge you have, the more value you can create.

Let your ideas have sex with other people’s ideas. It won’t take you long to see that, just like genes in nature, the simplest ideas can mutate over time; that they can be mixed and hybridized with others; which can, in short, be transformed by a process of natural selection into singular and brilliant ideas.

With each new combination, you’ll push the boundaries of your own ideas, allowing you to create new perspectives and opportunities for greater personal innovation.

Every opportunity to communicate something meaningful is an act of personal innovation. Create a personal blog on any topic you’re passionate about. Don’t hesitate. The blog can be a great starting point for you to start participating in conversations, to start building your personal brand, and to create your own space. A space where you can share your experiences, hobbies, etc. with others. A space through which you can provide useful content to people who are looking for information.

The blog is also the easiest way to be perceived and valued in this new world of conversations. All you need is a little passion and perseverance. With those ingredients, your blog will become your best platform for personal innovation. A knowledge platform capable of being inspired, growing and evolving with the conversations that take place every day in the ocean of the social network.