Every organization – not just business – needs one core competence: innovation. –Peter Drucker
Thomas Edison was the most outstanding figure in an era marked by an extraordinary confluence of American innovation – including the work of Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, George Eastman, Harvey Firestone, John D. Rockefeller, George Westinghouse, and Andrew Carnegie – that accelerated America’s leadership in global business.
Edison understood that innovation is much more than invention. Through the establishment of his two extraordinary laboratories at Menlo Park and West Orange, NJ, Edison drove innovation on many levels, including strategic technological, product/service, process, and design innovations.
How did Edison excel in so many different kinds of innovation?
courtesy greenster.com
Innovate Like Edison presents Thomas Edison’s essential approach to innovation success. His approach is based on what authors Michael Gelb and Sarah Miller Caldicott call The Five Competencies of Innovation. The five competencies are comprised of a total of twenty-five elements – building blocks – that support them.
The five competencies and twenty-five elements represent a core curriculum for you to achieve innovation literacy. If you are new to innovation, there’s no better way to get started on the journey. Innovate Like Edison is a guidebook enabling you to thrive in a world that increasingly rewards efforts. Ready to start classes?
Edison’s Five Competencies of Innovation
Solution-Centered Mindset
- Align Your Goals with Your Passions
- Cultivate Charismatic Optimism
- Seek Knowledge Relentlessly
- Experiment Persistently
- Pursue Rigorous Objectivity
Kaleidoscopic Thinking
- Maintain a Notebook
- Practice Ideaphoria
- Discern Patterns
- Express Ideas Visually
- Explore the Roads Not Taken
Full Spectrum Engagement
- Intensity and Relaxation
- Seriousness and Playfulness
- Sharing and Protecting
- Complexity and Simplicity
- Solitude and Team
Mastermind Collaboration
- Recruit for Chemistry and Results
- Design Multidisciplinary Collaboration Teams
- Inspire an Environment of Open Exchange
- Reward Collaboration
- Become a Master Networker
Super-Value Creation
- Link Market Trends with Core Strengths
- Turn In to your Target Audience
- Apply the Right Business Model
- Understand Scale-up Effects
- Create an Unforgettable Market-moving Brand
As you scan the 5 Competencies and 25 Elements above, consider how you might apply them to your most important innovation challenges. Think about questions like:
- How did Edison develop his resilient, creative, and optimistic attitude toward life?
- How did he find the right people to hire?
- Why did he choose the collaborators he did?
- What techniques did Edison use to teeth his ideas and then scale them up?
- Are there implicit “rules” to follow in Edison’s approach to innovation?
Next: Solution-Centered Mindset
A multi-part series being reposted in honor of Thomas Edison’s 166th birthday February 11
