We can find innovation difficult, especially when we are charged with helping to generate it in training or consulting initatives. To be effective, we need to balance our ideas and the ideas of others to insure that there is some shared ownership.

One of the things we can do: Step back from the Wagon to gain a more objective view about how things work and the issues and opportunities.

Creativity and Innovation are often part of a continuous continuous improvement process, combined with a bit of frustration about how things work and the belief that things can be improved.

And Perspective is another key: The view from within isn’t the same as the view from without, just like the View from the Back is not at all like the View from the Front. The past is generally strongly anchored to the present and thus we have a pre-determined future unless we start to think of things differently.

The View at the Front is different than the View at the Back

As trainers and consultants, unless we help our managers and ourselves look at things from different perspectives, we will never observe those many “round wheel” things that can assist us to improve.

A few basics about how most adults learn:

• it is easier to learn in a non-judgmental environment.
• discovery is better than directives, activity-based learning is retained
and generalized than facts and general models.
• it is easier to take risks in a less-threatening environment.
• metaphors are more transferable back to the job than lecture learning.
• peer support and common, shared experiences are powerful components to
generating commitment and behavioral change
• mistakes and errors are more powerful learning paradigms for many people

And remember,
Have some FUN out there, too