Who doesn’t want more insights and innovative ideas?
This holiday season as we stroll into the new year, I’d love to introduce you to the Insight Innovation Loop.
I first introduced this in our Neuroscience of Coaching course, a collaborative effort with my two neuroscientist partners. The Insight Innovation Loop reminds us how new insights lead to innovation, which is creating solutions to problems in new and creative ways.
Neuroscientist, Dr. Anne-Marie Cziko says, “Innovation from the brain perspective is the formation of novel networks. Absolutely everyone with a brain can do this, even those who have dubbed themselves non-creative.”
She goes on to say, “You don’t have anything to innovate from if you don’t expose yourself to things outside of your existing brain networks. Insight is the ability of these brain networks to be integrated into existing networks in a novel way.”
In the Insight Innovation Loop image below, it shows how the loop can only be set into motion with “exposure” to new things and “cognitive flexibility” refers to our brain’s endless ability to adapt to new information, experiences, and perspectives.
Interestingly, exposing yourself to new experiences can often lead to an innovative solution to a problem that seems completely unrelated to the new experience you’re trying.
For example, let’s say you are the Chief Learning Officer for a major organization who is struggling with creating a detailed minute by minute itinerary for the participants of a leadership development retreat.
You have years of experience and are confident that you know what you’re doing. You know that the participants will have a life-changing and transformative experience. The challenge is that this new cohort of participants is asking for minute details more than any cohort ever has.
With that looming challenge in the back of your mind, you allow your friends to convince you to check out a new sushi restaurant in town. You are not a fan of sushi, and usually decline invitations to sushi simply because it’s not your thing. However, this time you deliberately approach it with an open mind.
At the restaurant, you and your friends order the multi-course omakase, which is a set menu where you simply trust the chef. Omakase literally translates to “I leave it up to you.”
You’re a little nervous but decide to sit back and relax while trusting the masterful sushi chef to do what he does best to deliver what he believes to be the best sushi dining experience.
And boy did he deliver! It ended up being the best dining experience you’ve ever had in your life! Trusting the sushi chef and not knowing what was coming next exponentially added to the experience.
This exposure to this new sushi experience then inspired you to invite your leadership retreat participants to have an omakase perspective!
You share with the participants about your sushi experience and encourage them to trust you and that the retreat will be even more amazing the less they know about what is coming next.
I love how Dr. Anne-Marie Cziko reminds us that you don’t have anything to innovate from unless you are purposely exposing yourself to new experiences.
This holiday season, in what ways can you expose yourself to new ideas and experiences?
Only through this exposure will your brain practice cognitive flexibility that will spark the Insight Innovation Loop.
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