1. Encourage people with different Brain Styles to work together. 

People, like regions of the brain, are specialized. Some excel at coming up with new ideas – Visionaries, in Six Seconds’ Brain Styles – while others excel at focusing on the details and getting things done – Deliverers. These are 2 of the 8 Brain Styles – read more about all the brain styles here. The neuroscience research discussed above suggests that innovative thinking comes from an ability to combine the strengths of the different Brain Styles. On an individual level, the most innovative answers came from people who could activate the brain’s default mode network – thought to play a key role in daydreaming, mind wandering and generating ideas – and the executive control network – thought to play a key role in consciously controlling thoughts and evaluating / modifying ideas – at the same time. As an organization, you can promote innovative thinking by encouraging people with different Brain Styles to work together. This is easier said than done. Someone focused on the idealistic big picture and someone focused on getting things done often clash, rub each other the wrong way, and maybe even end up ignoring each other? But like the regions of the brain, breaking down that normal barrier could be the key to innovation.

2. Facilitate communication between typically distinct silos in your organization

It makes sense that Human Resources and Marketing, or Human Resources and Delivery, don’t collaborate on every little thing. Specialization exists for a reason; it’s efficient. But it’s easy to get into a mode where these different units or departments rarely, if ever, communicate. Everyone’s busy. Who has time for an extra meeting? But this research on innovation suggests that this lack of communication could be a real missed opportunity. If your organization has fallen into this trap, try following the Six Seconds Model of EQ to examine those normal practices and consider alternate actions that could be taken to create a more innovative culture.

Know Yourself: What’s the current situation? Is there a lack of interaction between individuals and organizational units?

Choose Yourself: What are your choices for encouraging a more collaborative culture? What are the potential risks and benefits of seeking out more diverse opinions on projects?

Give Yourself: Why does creating a more innovative culture appeal to you? How does it relate to your organization’s Noble Goal?

3. Nurture ideas even if they are incomplete or unrealistic

The brain loves certainty. It loves to be right, to be sure. This tendency can make it hard – as a leader or coworker – to leave space for ideas to grow. It’s too easy to jump on an idea and bring up all the reasons it won’t work, especially when it comes from someone who has a tendency to come up with unrealistic ideas. But innovation stems from the ability to seamlessly switch between dreaming of ideas, examining them, modifying them, and dreaming of other ideas. This means you have to create a culture in which it’s acceptable to advocate for outside-the-box ideas. That doesn’t mean bringing an idea to market that you have grave concerns about, but it does mean listening to that idea and staying open to it even if the timing isn’t right just yet, or one part hasn’t been properly resolved. This leads us into next week’s article on innovation, which focuses on the single most important driver of innovative teams, at least according to Google. Stay tuned for what that is, and if you want to sign up for our weekly email to make sure you don’t miss it, you can sign up by clicking on Get EQ News on the right.