Resiliency Principles and Innovation
So what is innovation? The Merrian-Webster Dictionary says innovation can refer to something new or to a change made to an existing product, idea, or field. One might say that the first telephone was an invention, the first cellular telephone either an invention or an innovation, and the first smartphone an innovation.
I hope this article will provide you with thoughts regarding innovation through the resiliency concepts of the late Dr Al Siebert's published work, The Survivor Personality.These thoughts and concepts are fundamental to all of one's life applications to succeed in a plan, creating a successful and applicable idea or a field.
The training from our partners in Brazil, at Quantum House*, will teach you the innovation theory and concepts at a higher evolved level but I, as Dr. Siebert did, think that the following concepts are easy to attain and are essential for innovation. Some of the excepts are paraphrased:
It is important to understand that change requires learning. The two concepts, change and learning, are inseparably linked. (pg 15)
My own personal mantra is "perpetual change, continuous upkeep."
The kind of learning that leads to thriving, is self-managed learning directly from experience. It is the kind of learning that young children do when they play. To play is to learn-nature's way. (pg 15)
Playing and experimenting are linked to human survival. (pg 15) What is called child's play "involves discovering the effects the child can have on the environment and the effect the environment will have on the child...the results...build up an increased competence in the child"... (pg 16) I love to watch young children learn something new. The look of joy on their faces says it all!
So play with your idea with any association you can think of - just like a child without constraints or judgments. Stick your fingers into the idea plus the associations you came up with and mash it together between your fingers, feel it and bring it alive in a new way. Do it again in a different way and in a different order. Stick a portion of your idea to another idea or association like a child does when playing with Play-Doh or Legos. Keep going until it takes on a new meaning or in a different direction that is pleasing to you or your customers.
Life's best survivors ask lots of questions-good questions, impudent questions, disruptive questions. People...retain from childhood a curiosity about what exists. They love learning how things work and may become delighted, laugh, and grab anyone nearby to show them what they have learned. (pg 17). I believe encouraging questions from young, peers and the old is essential to innovation. What would the world be like if no questions were asked!
Experimenting and playing show a person the relationship between what the person did and what happened as a result. Experimenting leads to firsthand knowledge of relationships between events. To experiment is to learn from your own experience. (pg 18)
Life's best survivors...experiment with different ideas or points of view to find out what works best. They are...interested in connections between cause and effect. Furthermore they continually seek information and new ideas that will explain how things work and how to make things work better.
My personal thought is they continually "connect to dots" between the information flow of the situation; the connections (or association) of words and people within the situation. (pg 19) Can you think of a time where someone was struggling with a situation and by you asking questions, a solution appeared by the flow of questions connecting the dots of the situation!
...This way of interacting with the world is how a person gets into the flow that develops emotional intelligence...Flow represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in service of performance and learning. (pg 20)
Talk it over people and get responses. I love to see people get the connections I see. It is so satisfying. And most often it is a major improvement and provides new life to your work and or your life!
The best survivors are good troubleshooters...They often come up with remarkably easy solutions to difficult problems because they want and need for things to work smoothly and easily. (pg 45) Their sense of knowing when things are working well and when they are not doesn't come from following rules or memorized techniques. It comes from an inner awareness or feeling about nature's laws and principles. (pg 46)
The conscious mind is like the tip of an iceberg floating on top of a much large subconscious mind. People who have a good relationship with subconscious processes - hunches, intuition, dreams and daydreams, creativity, imagination and synchronicity - have an advantage over people who try to be logical and rational. (pg 65-66).
Some people have unexplainable intuitive flashes, others develop intuition by practicing. In either case, intuition is the ability to be receptive to information coming through one's subconscious mind. (pg 66).
Research shows that people have different threshold levels for subliminal perception. Also, a person's sensitivity can change, depending on this alertness and physical condition. The point here is that some people are better survivors than others in part because awareness of subtle reactions in their bodies gives them useful information. (67-68)
With practice, anyone can improve his ability to access subliminal information. Once you notice your body is responding to [information] ...how you perceive the cues and clues around you - is enhanced by being sensitive to subtle inner feelings...the survivor reaction is to remain focused on discovering what is up...the person remains alert and curious about what is really occurring.
I hope this provide you with some insights of innovation through curiosity, asking questions, brainstorming with others, connecting the dots through word and people associations; allowing a concept to form an idea. Be receptive of the flow of information provided. Let your mind play with the information, twist it around, and turn the information upside down. Let the idea germinate, spiral up through your chakras or levels of need, evolve through your own mind's intellect, body's physical feelings and spirit connection to others applicable to your situation.
* If you would like to explore the connection between resiliency and innovation, please consider joining with the ASRC and Quantum House 2020 conference, "Innovation," a conference planned for June 2020 in the Brazilian Amazon. Stay tuned for more information!
