Introducing Innovation-as-a-Skill

By K. Melissa Kennedy Blog, employeee-driven innovation, Innovation, Intrapreneurship, team building employee training, Innovation, skill

Can innovation be cultivated in an employee? We believe it can and innovation-as-a-skill makes it possible. Let’s define what we mean by this concept. First, a skill is the learned ability to carry out a task with pre-determined results often within a given amount of time, energy or both.[1] Second, innovation is a new idea, a more effective device or process. It can be viewed as the application of better solutions.[2] When you break it down to its simplest form, innovation-as-a-skill is a learned ability to apply better solutions.

Here are 7 fundamentals of Innovation-as-a-Skill:

Co-creation – bringing different parties together in order to jointly produce a mutually valued outcome
Continuous Engagement through Iterative Prototyping – working with customers or stakeholders to advance solutions by creating, testing, analyzing, learning and continuously evolving
Confidence – trusting in oneself and abilities
Empathy — the ability to understand and share the feelings of another
Acceptance of Impermanence – consenting that nothing is permanent and things are constantly changing
Fear Management — a process to control one’s reaction to uncertainty
Solutions-oriented Attitude – Belief that there are possible solutions to a problem

48 Innovate cultivates these fundamentals within employees and helps them create successful value-generating plans for organizations in less than 48 hours. We have brought $280M in impact to our clients, which provides quantifiable proof that this platform develops innovation-as-a-skill that delivers REAL value for organizations.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

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K. Melissa Kennedy

Chief Innovation Officer, Founder, Intrapreneur. Entrepreneur. Enthusiastic leader and speaker. Teller of truths at 48 Innovate

I spent many years working for and building successful companies. I parlayed that experience into a unique process for harnessing hidden assets inside organizations and turning them into big-idea-generating, $1-billion-revenue-producing resources. (Spoiler alert: it’s the people.) I'm an internationally acclaimed expert, happy to share the not-so-secrets that have led to impressive outcomes for Fortune 100 corporations, major educational institutions, start-up companies and entrepreneurs. Working with companies like Cisco, Lancope, Arby's, Capitol Broadcasting Company New Media - WRAL, PRSONAS, Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog, REVO Communications, Erno Group, Focus Carolina, Madan Global, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, INZONE Brands, Albright Digital, Spring Metrics and NC State Kenan Fellows.