It’s really astounding how many people I meet who tell me, “I’m not creative” or “I wasn’t born an innovator.” How many times have you told yourself this story? No matter how convinced you may be that you are not creative or you were not meant to change the world, I believe that EVERYONE is a born innovator! The simple fact that you have grown up and learned how to be an adult in this world means you have already gone through a process of continual innovation – and creating something totally new is often a matter of recapturing that mindset.

Face Failure

Learning to innovate is not about acquiring a new skill. In fact, it’s re-learning the skills you have had since birth. Observe small children: they are constantly innovating. Give them a carrot and it’s a spaceship, a fish, a microphone, a crayon. It’s a hundred things because a child’s mind is unconditioned by rigid definitions such as — “This is a carrot and only a carrot.”

Working with children reveals the depths of their capacity for innovation and spontaneous creativity. The mind of a child is a realm of endless possibilities, no matter what the task at hand. And, whether or not you remember, you, too once viewed the world with the eyes of a child.

Innovating is natural, but nobody said it was easy. Some children are easily discouraged, while others are not bothered by failure. Every time we correct a child for coloring “outside the lines,” or tell a child to “stop asking so many questions,” or tell them, “That’s a stupid question,” we are squashing their natural capacity for innovation!

Every time management overrides someone for not having an answer on the spot, every time an employer overlooks a candidate because she hesitated…our self-perception as un-creative people who are unable to innovate is reinforced.

How many of your innovative ideas never took off? Or how many new approaches were shot down by your boss?

What was the “takeaway” lesson from failed innovations?

Learning to face our failures and take them as useful lessons allows us to continue “drawing outside the lines” without losing confidence in ourselves.

Ask Questions and Test Limits

What is the one thing every four-, five-, and six-year-old does flawlessly, perfectly and incessantly? They ask questions! Everything is a question: What is that? What does this do? What if I press this button? Why is the sky blue? Why are apples crunchy? Why do I have to wear shoes? Not only are children at this age learning and absorbing information, they are figuring out limits and boundaries through their questioning. “How many questions can I ask before mama doesn’t know the answer?”

Asking questions opens up new possibilities. When our first attempts at innovation fail, don’t keep trying the same thing over and over again. Try something different! Ask as many questions as you can think of, and you will find your ideas becoming less trite and more relevant, less ambiguous and more specific. When you are done, review your questions, watching for where you are testing boundaries and finding (or surpassing) limitations.

“Why didn’t my idea take off?”

“What if my innovation is not accepted by everyone?”

“How many different ways can my innovation fail?”

“What is holding me back from taking the next step?”

 Take Full Advantage of the Drawing Board

One obvious way that children test limits is with their questions, but they’re also testing, poking, prodding, and experimenting all the time, because that’s the nature of being a child. They’ll probably make a few mud pies that aren’t quite the right consistency before they’re satisfied, and so will you, metaphorically.

You have already jumped into the deep end of innovating – ma...