The Innovator S Mindset

The traditional system of education requires students to hold their questions and compliantly stick to the scheduled curriculum. But our job as educators is to provide new and better opportunities for our students. It's time to recognize that compliance doesn't foster innovation, encourage critical thinking, or inspire creativity--and those are the skills our students need to succeed.

2021 Axiom Business Book Award Winner in Business Intelligence/Innovation Innovation isn't optional—it's imperative Everyone wants to create new products and services, find new customers and markets, stay ahead of the competition, and work smarter instead of harder. Yet with all the focus and attention on innovation, the term has become an overused buzzword rather than a real, tangible concept. If you want to seriously pursue innovation—you need to strip away the hype. Real innovators need to transcend the existing ideas, rules, and patterns to discover exciting new outcomes. They must step outside the best practice box and get their hands dirty. The spirit of a true innovator is rooted in wanting to do something that has never been done before, to solve problems that have never been solved, and to run through walls and leap over tall buildings to get there. In The Innovator’s Spirit, author Chuck Swoboda—retired chairman and CEO of Cree, a company that fundamentally changed the way people experience light and drove the obsolescence of the Edison light bulb—explains that innovation is fundamentally about people and shows his readers how to develop a mindset of creativity, risk-taking, and hard work. He also instills in them a belief that there is always a better way.

In Innovate Inside the Box, George Couros and Katie Novak provide informed insight on creating purposeful learning opportunities for all students. By combining the power of the Innovator's Mindset and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), they empower educators to create opportunities that will benefit every learner.

Innovation requires more than a eureka moment. The vast majority of new product ideas never make it to market. Typically, this is because of the failure to address a real problem that a customer has experienced and is willing to pay to have solved. What do people and businesses need to know about the realities of innovating in order to develop products successfully? Lorraine Marchand—a seasoned practitioner who has guided Fortune 500 companies and start-ups on developing and launching new ideas—lays out a step-by-step framework for spurring success. She shares her eight laws of innovation, a formula for driving significant and lasting transformation in any organization. Marchand emphasizes the frame of mind needed to spark the innovation process, underscoring the importance of creating a problem-solving culture and supporting personal curiosity, passion, and talent. She pinpoints the strengths shared by the big ideas that break through and debunks the myths that hold back aspiring creators. Drawing on her experience as a woman in a male-dominated field, Marchand discusses how to support entrepreneurship by women and highlights the contributions of underrepresented innovators. Marchand’s how-to program for innovation is clear and easy to follow, featuring a toolkit of strategic templates and planning frameworks that are illustrated by helpful case studies. Written in authoritative but conversational language, The Innovation Mindset offers a practical plan for both the veteran with another great idea and the first-timer with a big dream.

Redefine what it means to be innovative The Innovative Mindset calls the accepted definition of innovation into question, urging you to consider how innovation might function as a behavior that you perpetuate, rather than an inflexible theory or corporate-defined initiative. By asking yourself what it takes to be innovative—and by being honest with yourself about the answer—you can incorporate innovation into your life much in the same way that you would a behavior to help you lose weight, increase your strength, learn to play the piano, or improve your relationships. This groundbreaking text helps you identify what you need to do in order to become more innovative and less fearful, and assists in creating a regimen that transforms how you act. Innovation has become one of the most popular buzz words of the Digital Age, and there is no better time to reevaluate the true meaning of a concept than when it is being touted by individuals and companies around the world. A fresh, practical understanding of innovation can revolutionize the way you think about work. Master innovation by reexamining what it means and how you can implement it as a behavior Explore the transformative power of the Mindset of Discovery in poignant, up-to-date case studies and improvisation-based tenets Spark innovation, maximize productivity, and increase profitability as a result of implementing the Big Five behaviors Boost performance as you foster and leverage your new approach towards innovation The Innovative Mindset reevaluates the nature of innovation and shows how a change in perspective can lead to more dynamic, more successful endeavors.

“Jeff and Staney emphasize that small acts of creativity can have huge consequences and that ordinary people can do extraordinary things if they can see the opportunities in front of them.” —Mitch Jacobson, Executive Director, Austin Technology Incubator, UT Blackstone LaunchPad, University of Texas at Austin Nearly all of today's major innovation workshops and programs call on organizations to drive innovation. What they miss is that innovation comes from the personal creativity of individuals. And creativity doesn't require an advanced education or technical skills—all employees can be creative. Often, all they lack is a fitting mindset and the right skills. The Creative Mindset brings how-to advice, tools, and techniques from two master innovators who have taught and worked with over half of all Fortune 500 companies. Jeff and Staney DeGraff introduce six essential creative-thinking skills that can be easily mastered with limited practice and remembered as the acronym CREATE: Concentrate, Replicate, Elaborate, Associate, Translate, and Evaluate. These six skills, sequenced as steps, simplify and summarize the most important research on creative thinking and draw on over thirty years of real-world application in some of the most innovative organizations in the world. It's time to rethink the way we make innovation happen. Individual creativity is an immense untapped resource, and you don't have to be Beethoven to make a big difference. As the spirit of chef Gusteau proclaims in the Pixar classic Ratatouille, “Anyone can cook.”

Build a positive school climate to impact students, teachers, and the community! Is improving school climate on your to-do list? Do you think about it as a top-down directive or as a dialogue to build equity within the school? A healthy school environment should never be seen as an option, but instead supported as a must-have. Peter DeWitt offers leaders practical high impact strategies to improve school climate, deepen involvement in student learning, and engage a broader family network. In addition to international vignettes focused on community stakeholders and research-based practices, this book features tools such as · a leadership growth cycle to help leaders build their self-efficacy · a teacher observation cycle centered on building collective efficacy · an early warning system to identify potential at-risk students · action steps following each chapter to apply to your own setting · discussion questions for use in team environments Establishing a supportive and inclusive school climate where professionals can take risks to improve the lives of students is vital to maximize learning in any school community.

A new classic, cited by leaders and media around the globe as a highly recommended read for anyone interested in innovation. In The Innovator’s DNA, authors Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and bestselling author Clayton Christensen (The Innovator’s Dilemma, The Innovator’s Solution, How Will You Measure Your Life?) build on what we know about disruptive innovation to show how individuals can develop the skills necessary to move progressively from idea to impact. By identifying behaviors of the world’s best innovators—from leaders at Amazon and Apple to those at Google, Skype, and Virgin Group—the authors outline five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting. Once you master these competencies (the authors provide a self-assessment for rating your own innovator’s DNA), the authors explain how to generate ideas, collaborate to implement them, and build innovation skills throughout the organization to result in a competitive edge. This innovation advantage will translate into a premium in your company’s stock price—an innovation premium—which is possible only by building the code for innovation right into your organization’s people, processes, and guiding philosophies. Practical and provocative, The Innovator’s DNA is an essential resource for individuals and teams who want to strengthen their innovative prowess.