The Innovator's DNA

Over the weekend, I came up with this idea of changing my HR paper topic less than 2 weeks before the deadline.  I know.  I'm NUTS!  Even worse is that you need to get approval to make such changes.

My original paper was on how to make the now-defunct HR Projects division better.  It would cover stuff like role ambiguity, incompatible demands, and role over/underload.  Yippee!

My brainwavy idea was to write about building a creative and innovative culture.  I sent my idea off to my professor and got a response in a very short time period - under an hour.  [Isn't that INCREDIBLE??]  It is a workable idea, with a caution that it is supposed to be an HR paper.  "Don't fret", I said, "I have my Pfeffer articles in hand."  Pfeffer is the centre of the universe on current HR research.  I didn't know that before starting this latest class, so you would not likely know that either.  Fortunately, his writing is very accessible.

Well, look what showed up in my Facebook feed today (which I then added to my FB status, of course):

http://www.slideshare.net/bmw53/innovators-dna

It's a presentation based on an article that we had to read for our Creativity and Innovation course back in January.  Now the five ideas or steps to innovation in there are quite simple:

Associating
Questioning
Observing
Experimenting
Networking

It's the practice of them that makes them magical.  Doing vs. deciding to do.  How do you incorporate that into a culture?  You can hire people who have those skills.  You can create rituals around them.  Not sure if the rituals are part of the HR readings, though.

This helps me in addressing innovation.  Now onto creativity!  If you have any ideas for me, send them along!

Oh!  On a side note...  I've been thinking about my research topic for my DBA (because I am crazy, I know) and I am mulling over the area of creativity and innovation in the workplace.  This seven-page assignment is only the top of the iceberg!