Connecting the dots — Choose To Thinq

(This is from Edition 60 of The Upleveler, our weekly smartletter)

What do Indian ashrams have to do with Apple, the world's most valuable company?

Innovators are not necessarily a special breed of people. They are regular people with special traits. The Innovator's DNA is a book that believes anyone can learn and practise these traits.

What are these traits? First, the book distinguishes between delivery and discovery. Delivery Skills help you execute a business model and improve reliability. They ensure financial success. But what's required for innovation to thrive are Discovery Skills. They are required especially at the start of an idea cycle. Later, delivery skills become important once the concrete version of the idea (product/service/offering) stabilizes.

The five discovery traits are association, observation, networking, questioning and experimentation.

Let's look at association this week. As defined by the book, "association is the combining and recombining of information and ideas". This trait helps with ideation, creation, and adaptation.

Human brain == associative machine. It doesn't store information like a dictionary, so you won't find the word 'Apple' under 'A'. Instead it associates the word with any number of experiences including the taste and colour of the fruit or the feel of an iPhone. So the good news is that we are already wired to be associative. We learn by connecting new knowledge with existing models that our brain uses to understand the world around us.

The more frequently you attempt to understand, categorize, and store new knowledge, the more easily brains can naturally and consistently make, store, and recombine them.

Such associations happen at intersections of different people, organizations and ideas. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was renowned for his associative powers. He sought out new experiences, from a calligraphy class to meditative practice at Indian ashrams to the finer details of a Mercedes Benz. In his head, these experiences melded together in new and unusual ways.

How can we mere mortals practise association? Try these:

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