How to be an innovator

Becoming an Innovator: How to Bring New and Original Ideas into This World.Being an innovator means that you are capable of generating something new and original. In most cases, innovation stems from existing ideas or processes, correlating into a new pattern.

This type of thinking affords many opportunities for the future of those that can acquire the skills to achieve the mindset that all of life’s challenges are merely another problem or challenge yet to be solved. Being innovative is about achieving smart and affordable solutions to existing challenges with systems or processes. Creativity is not only reserved for artists, musicians and poets—it applies to business people as well.

As an entrepreneur, manager or professional bearing a lot of responsibility, you face challenges or problems needing to be solved every single day. Limited resources call for creativity. Thinking outside the box and approaching challenges from new perspectives allows you to become a sophisticated problem solver, an innovator.

The more practice you have, the better you get at it. Keeping your thoughts fresh and mind open is essential for innovation to continually flourish throughout your life and career.

BE CURIOUS. Ask questions, put yourself in new situations, and hang around with people outside of your profession or background. Being open minded and welcoming to new experiences helps you to develop new insights and perspectives which expands possibilities and diminishes limitations. Travel to new countries and learn about new cultures, join different extracurricular activities, take up a new hobby—or maybe it is time to give your career a makeover and do something completely new. Travel was an invaluable experience for me to open my mind to new possibilities and different ways of doing the same thing, the ability to adapt in new environments helped me gain confidence and courage when I started on the path of entrepreneurship. Being eager to learn anything helps you keep a beginners mind and stay open, not closed to new possibilities.

READ BOOKS AND THINK ABOUT THEM. It is a no-brainer that reading makes you smarter. Reading books by authors summarizing their years of experiences and insights, prestigious education or in-depth research gives you an obvious advantage to develop deeper thinking capacity than most members of society busy watching television programs.

Good authors connect you to how they think; you in turn can take notes or gain knowledge from what they already know to be true. BREAK YOUR ROUTINE. Feeling stuck? Take a break from the problem or change your environment.

Oftentimes breakthrough ideas do not happen right in front of your computer, but rather on a walk, in the shower, while driving your car, etc. Albert Einstein meditated on his problems and waited for the solution to come to him. He followed the spiritual intuitive route to problem solving versus a structured formula to innovate in, the latter of which is commonly found in corporate environments. Savour new experiences and change up your routines and patterns of behaviour to leave openings for something new to come to fruition.

EXAM QUESTION 16

1. Production Organization: motivating employees

Motivation can be defined as "the complex forces, needs, drives, tension states, or other mechanisms within us that will create and maintain voluntary activity directed toward the achievement of personal goals". Employee motivation can be defined as "psychological forces that determine the direction of a person's behavior in an organization, a person's level of effort and a person's level of persistence". It is important to understand that employee motivation is a separate and distinct topic apart from motivation. Vast articles and studies exist on this topic indicating the level of importance employee motivation has in business success. A study conducted by the District Chief of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Fire Department concluded that morale does, in fact, have a direct impact on employee productivity. Employers who understand the theories of motivation have a greater ability to understand what motivates employees, to boost employee morale and thus obtain the advantage of greater organizational productivity. Various studies on motivational techniques have proven the effectiveness of job design, rewards, employee participation, and quality-of-work-life programs on employee motivation.

Motivational techniques:Job design.The design of an employee’s job can have a significant impact on their job motivation. Job design includes designing jobs that create both a challenging and interesting task for the employee and is effective and efficient for getting the job done. Four approaches to job design are:1. Job Simplification: The goal of this job design approach is to standardize and specialize tasks. Unfortunately this approach does not always lead to increased motivation as the jobs can become mundane.2. Job Enlargement: The goal of this job design approach is to combine tasks to give the employee a greater variety of work. 3. Job Rotation: The goal of this job design approach is to move workers to different tasks periodically. 4. Job Enrichment: The key to job design employee motivation, this approach aims to enhance the actual job by building up the employee through motivational factors.

Several studies validate the effectiveness of using job design techniques as an employee motivation technique. A study conducted by Campion and Thayer used a job design questionnaire to determine how job designs fostering motivation affected employees. Campion and Thayer found that jobs with more motivational features have lower effort requirements, a better well-being, and fewer health complaints. The study also found that jobs scoring high on the motivational subscale of the questionnaire contained employees who were more satisfied and motivated, had a higher rating pertaining to job performance, and had fewer absences. Hackman. conducted a study pertaining to work redesign and how redesigning work could improve productivity and motivation through job enlargement or enrichment. The study’s results found that redesigning a job can improve the quality of the product or service that is provided, increase the quantity of work, and can increase work satisfaction and motivation. The last study on job design was conducted by Dunham who wanted to determine if there was a relationship between job design characteristics and job ability and compensation requirements. Dunham believed organizations were overlooking job ability requirements and compensation when they enlarged or enriched employee’s jobs.

Motivational theories.Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Abraham Maslow viewed motivation as being based off a hierarchy of needs, of which a person cannot move to the next level of needs without satisfying the previous level. Maslow’s hierarchy starts at the lowest level of needs, basic physiological needs. Basic physiological needs include air, water, and food. Employers who pay at least a minimal living wage will meet these basic employee needs The next level of needs is referred to as safety and security needs. This level includes needs such as having a place to live and knowing one is safe. Employers can meet these needs by ensuring employees are safe from physical, verbal or emotional hazards and have a sense of job security. The third level of needs is social affiliation and belonging This is the need to be social, have friends, and feel like one belongs and is loved. Implementing employee participation programs can help fulfill the need to belong. Rewards such as acknowledging an employee’s contributions can also satisfy these social and love needs. The fourth level on the hierarchy is esteem needs. This level is described as feeling good about one’s self and knowing that their life is meaningful, valuable, and has a purpose. Employers should use the job design technique to create jobs that are important to and cherished by the employee. The last level Maslow described is called self-actualization. This level refers to people reaching their potential states of well-being. An employer who ensures that an employee is in the right job and has all other needs met will help the employee realize this highest need. Herzberg's two-factor theory.Frederick Herzberg developed the two-factor theory of motivation based on satisfiers and dissatisfiers. Satisfiers are motivators associated with job satisfaction while dissatisfiers are motivators associated with hygiene or maintenance. Satisfiers include achievement, responsibility, advancement, and recognition. Satisfiers are all intrinsic motivators that are directly related to rewards attainable from work performance and even the nature of the work itself. Dissatisfiers are extrinsic motivators based on the work environment, and include a company’s policies and administration such as supervision, peers, working conditions, and salary. Herzberg believed providing for hygiene and maintenance needs could prevent dissatisfaction but not contribute to satisfaction. Herzberg also believed that satisfiers hold the greatest potential for increased work performance. Work-life programs are a form of satisfier that recognizes the employee’s life outside of work which, in turn, helps motivate the employee.Vroom's expectancy theory.The expectancy theory of motivation was established by Victor Vroom with the belief that motivation is based on the expectation of desired outcomes.The theory is based on three concepts: valence, expectancy, and force. Valence is the attractiveness of potential rewards, outcomes, or incentives. Expectancy is a person’s belief that they will or will not be able to reach the desired outcome. Force is a person’s motivation to perform. “In general, people will work hard when they think that it is likely to lead to desired organizational rewards”

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1095