Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future – Brian Tracy

We live in a time where skills are the key requirements for attaining value and, unless we develop and hone the right skills, we will continuously struggle with achieving set goals, however clearly mapped out the goals are before us. Excellence will, therefore, always elude us.

What are these skills?

Critical-Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills

Critical thinking goes beyond the ability to ask the right questions. Pertinent issues would make pertinent impact if they are looked at with the pertinence they require through the lenses of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation.

Beyond these, we have the opportunity to x-ray design thinking and problem-solving tools like Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping, Reverse Brainstorming and other such techniques. These can both earn us the capabilities of making better decisions to improve lives and, effectively help us arrive at solutions during innovative processes for productivity, through anticipating problems that may occur with any initiative we engage in.

Collaboration Across Networks and Influence Leadership

Influence leadership is not the function of position; rather, it is what you are able to do, wherever you are, to make sure that the day-to-day goals of the team and organisation you belong to are achieved. Effort is required on your part to embark on continuous self-development for you to reach a point of reckoning. Your curiosity must be applied as your passion will be tested in enervating waters.

Importantly, too, networking has to extend beyond social media platforms. In that line, we must be courageous enough to go beyond electronic platforms to physically meet and engage with others, in order to ensure practical manifestation where opportunity can be created and exploited for growth.

Essentially, whether within or beyond your immediate environment, you are expected to lead, and there is no better time to take advantage of this than right now.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world – Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela’s quote is a statement of fact. But like the oft-mentioned saying, “knowledge is power,” it is potential. This is because while education is truly the most powerful weapon by which change can be made to happen among a people and the larger world, its achievement is an issue of serious considerations, and a subject of concerted efforts, effective performance and total commitment.

In the tropics, a lot of children who should be in school are out of school, and they are not even engaged in any skill-acquisition training whatsoever. According to the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Hammid Bobboyi, based on a demographic health survey conducted in 2015 by the UNICEF, about 13.2 million children are out of school in Nigeria. And I think this figure is extremely conservative because more than, if not triple this figure, starkly represents Nigeria’s out-of-school children.

To even imagine that this number (13.2 million) is higher than the entire population of some countries is mind-boggling: Guinea, 12.72 million; Qatar, 2.639 million; Brunei, 428,697; Somalia, 12.3 million; and Rwanda, Greece, Bolivia, Tunisia, Belgium and Portugal all come between 10.3 and 11.5 million inhabitants apiece. Figures may vary from study to study, though.

Even more worrisome is the fact that sixty percent of the Nigerian out-of-school population is in northern Nigeria, with about sixty per cent being girls (according to UNICEF, Nigeria). Besides, it is noteworthy to state that an overwhelming majority of young children of northern extraction are scattered all over the country (Nigeria), engaged in sundry menial jobs. By contrast, this is despite the legislation that favours them on the question of disparity in terms of low scores to qualify them for admission into federal secondary and tertiary schools. Now, this is not even the drift of this article.

That education is the most powerful weapon and, that knowledge is power, is the same thing as saying that creativity can birth innovation. While this is true, there is a hiatus between ideation [the act of forming ideas] and invention. This is the case with creativity [ideas] and innovation [invention].

Nelson Mandela’s quote, to my understanding, presupposes that education must be geared towards providing practical solutions to the array of everyday problems that humans grapple with. But does our present educational arrangement, by virtue of its composition, ideals, operations and management possess the capabilities to fulfil its promise of changing the situation from what is currently obtainable, especially in terms of improving the living standards? This is the crux of the matter here.

The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing – Albert Einstein.

The mind that is both preoccupied with questions and often asks same, is in constant search for answers. Answers are solutions to problems. With every solution, there is value added. We can keep asking questions pertaining to a specific issue until all questions are exhausted. Thereafter, we cease to explore that terrain because we have the answers at least for the time under review.

However, we may not lock the door permanently because disruption, the result of a craving for improvement, which is powered by the strength of creativity for innovation, can happen anytime. It is an ongoing thing, as a matter of fact.

The curious mind is a compatible ally with questions, and there are always questions on the inside that crave answers. In the light of this, the search for meanings is locked, and within same shall the value of such meanings be unlocked.

What is more, the curious mind seeks; the curious mind is fastidious; the curious mind restlessly seeks the “why” behind things, and is always searching for better ways of doing the same things. This is critical thinking for problem-solving.

Imagination is at the core of the mode of operation of curiosity, as imagination is like the shadow cast by curiosity, or vice versa. Both are like two sides of the same coin.

Questioning is compatible with [flows alongside] some specifics:

Listening Hard

It is, however, very important that if we ask questions [seek information from others], we must exercise the discipline of keeping our mouths shut, while they give response. In other words, allow the receiver of the question to respond duly. In a private conversation, listening can come with irregular pauses, with questions to help clarify learning, simultaneously.

For example, in the listener’s bid to convince the interlocutor [a person taking part in a conversation with you] that (s)he is paying rapt attention, the listener might seek clarification of something by inquiring: “Can you give an example?” “Do you mean this or that?” “What other point do we need to take note of?”Such questions are healthy to ensure thorough understanding.

The Exercise of Patience

The truth behind patience is that it is inseparable from wisdom. Oftentimes, with discourses, even when one party does not know what to contribute, the ability to patiently listen to the other person can provide access to valid points with which to fruitfully engage the speaker. This, practised over a period, becomes a great avenue that can lead to the opening of tremendous doors of immense resources and discoveries. This could lead to innovation if exploited. It is creativity...

To live a creative life, we must first lose the fear of being wrong – Joseph Chilton Pearce

How Do I Encourage Creativity in Learners?

How do I make my child, pupil, student, mentee, protégé, understudy, follower and tribe/community members creative? Giving an answer to the foregoing appears quite easy, like a friend who, sometime ago, hurriedly reacted by saying ‘‘science and technology,’’ without giving it a critical thought. In truth, however, it is rather a billion-dollar question that could prove the game changer for the entire human race.

The destination of the journey which commences with creativity is innovation. Stating it differently, innovation begins with creativity because without a creative mind that births practicable ideas, there cannot be innovation. A truly purposeful and visionary mind that is inclined to innovation advances creativity to a logical end – invention.

What is Creativity and Innovation?

Before venturing into a definitive meaning of innovation [the attaining end of creativity], let us achieve clarification on the distinction between one of the two commonly used and rather confused terms or words.

The words creativity and innovation are used interchangeably by different persons. This implies that such users are unaware of their distinct meanings. While this may cause confusion to a vast majority of persons, perhaps only a few can distinctly differentiate between the two words.

First things first, we must understand that creativity is not innovation. While creativity borders on ideas, innovation is the process of actualising or bringing the ideas to life. A writer once stated, “It’s not about ideas; it’s about making ideas happen.” That is absolutely spot on.

Every equipment or device invented, every book written, every album waxed, or whatever tangible thing that has been used or is being used by man to lead a comfortable life is actually an idea perfected; an intangible thought expressed through the funnel of innovation to become tangible.

Every vehicle manufactured; the computer and other cutting-edge gadgets, tools or devices produced [electric iron, telephone, microphone and aircraft]; poem written; dance step originated; story or book written; social media platforms developed like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; and applications or solutions were all figments of the imagination of some persons. They were ideas [intangible] that were brought to life [tangible] through a process of execution.

Innovation involves striving towards making human life worth living in terms of improvement of processes, updating of new trends and equipment, and the production of new things.

Innovation is invention, and it often requires that the dynamics of the present is disrupted to achieve a better future. Innovation rests upon the insatiable desire to give; a restless spirit built on the ethos of munificence [extreme generosity].

The mind of the innovator [inventor] is saddled with unquenchable yearning to add value, whether such a being is in confinement, in discomfort, suffering rejection, exhibiting freedom of space/thought, or leading the life of a recluse, although connected or attuned to world realities. The theme is often the same – disruptive thinking [creativity] to bless mankind with an array of physical benefits [innovation/invention]...

“Successful companies tend to fall into three traps that make the glory days fleeting. First is the physical trap in which big investments in the old systems or equipment prevent the pursuit of fresher, more relevant investments. There’s the psychological trap, in which company leaders fixate on what made them successful and fail to notice when something new is displacing it. Then, there’s the strategic trap, when a company focuses purely on the marketplace of today and fails to anticipate the future...” Vijay Govindarajan (Dartmouth Tuck School of Business. Courtesy of the US News and World Report.)

As I read this online article many months back, posted in the US News and World Report in August 19, 2010, by Rick Newman, profiling 10 great companies that lost their edge: Blockbuster (a video-rental chain), Dell, Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, Motorola, Sears, Sony, Sun Microsystems, Toys “R” Us, and Yahoo, I began to ponder deeply what factors could have been responsible for such a reversal in fortunes.

Now, whether the reasons advanced or the content of the article is correct is not the purpose here. Instead, it is the fact that organisations lose their edge for diverse reasons, and the goal here is to ensure we realise that the foundation of every endeavour matters.

The idea is for start-ups to look at three key areas as they venture into any undertaking: Vision, Mission and Culture. I shall feature a fourth (Team) in a subsequent writing. These are the foundations for building enduring and top-notch companies. The inspiration matters and every business idea must be seen through the lens of conception to completion, as it sets out, or is in the process of development.

As we ventured into the year 2022, I shared 10 ideas that I think young people out there should pay attention to as the year begins. Now, as the year unfolds, I wish to expound on the thoughts to help us navigate through the 2022 terrain. Though it is not an exhaustive list as no one can exhaust a value list, it can point you in the right direction if you diligently pay attention to it and apply it consistently as you go through the year.

Good business leaders create vision, articulate the vision, passionately hone the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion. Those were the words of Jack welch.

Robert Kiyosaki said "Inside of every problem lies an opportunity. Solutions to problems make us rich. The lack of problems make us poor". How deeply ironical both a title and quote are?

Getting someone else to link with your deep recess and feed from it is a rare feat that requires perceiving with the mind as oppose to looking with the eyes. True disciples and followers must catch the vision of their leader and run with it before they can be adjudged loyal and sincere.