Innovation is child's play

Innovators effectively put to use three skills - surprisingly genuine curiosity, seemingly stupid perseverance and spontaneously springing creativity.To understand their process of innovation all that we need to do is observe a child playing.

Curiosity - Children play a game because they enjoy playing and they don't get bored easily. They don't look for an unmet market need or a business case to play. Innovators are genuinely curious about their idea and enjoy playing with it - this is the only reason why they pursue an idea.

Perseverance - Children exhibit a high level of perseverance while playing. They don't give up even if they hurt themselves while playing. There is no ego being hurt. Innovators don't care what their peers think they just pursue their idea till it works. They are never put off by false starts and delays.

Creativity - children tend to make their own rules and continuously improvise the game. Bill Waterson gives an excellent account of this aspect in Calvin Ball. Making dynamic rules is part of the game. Innovators make their own rules and make their game exciting - they lose interest to play otherwise.

We had these three skills in plenty when we were young and we were mostly happy. How do we re-discover these skills ? start this inner journey by stopping to observe for a few minutes a child playing.