How Does Data Analytics Remove The Cognitive Barriers to Innovation?

How often do we wonder that only some people possess the ability to innovate? Well, that’s not correct; today, we are going to change that perception. Just like our diet influences our performance and ability to think, how often do we follow a strict healthy diet, mostly not? But when we remove the barriers slowing down our bodies and affecting our energy levels, we get a high-functioning body as we desire.?

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In the same way, innovation is at the core of our human species, a natural skill, and by removing the leading barriers; we can all revitalize our ability to innovate. Since the start of the technological era, the ability to change and innovate has been the central requirement for our modern businesses. Some businesses rise above the ground faster than others, and some struggles to keep up. Innovation is not a gift granted to a selected few; instead, there are ways to unlock the potential to innovate by simply removing the barriers.?

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This article will discuss those mental barriers and their associated solutions to help us have that innovation-directed eye. Specific analytical tools help remove all these obstacles that our data contains. In business, using BI tools and analytics is crucial in turning up our cognitive brains to think innovatively.?

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We have come up with three significant cognitive barriers to innovative thinking. These barriers are prevalent in how our general perception fixates on certain things and cannot look past them.?

Functional fixedness; Functional fixedness occurs when common features block our perceptions, and we cannot see the object and its utility in any other way. In various business settings, ideas often get blocked because situations and difficulties never get viewed as an opportunity. To remove this perceptual fixation, one should look at things and situations differently so that the same object can get used for novel purposes that haven’t been thought of before.?

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• Design fixation; another aspect that we do encounter a lot is design fixation. When we get asked to think of new ideas related to a specific design, people often try to upgrade and manipulate the existing design to make a new one. Novel concepts and innovation do not come out looking at the same features, such as length, height, colors, size, or anything. Removing this barrier involves taking a risk and coming up with an entirely different idea of looking at a particular structure.?

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• Goal fixedness; Sometimes, when a goal gets communicated to a team, they often see the goal as completely fixed and unchangeable. It is vital that when a plan gets conveyed, it should be in more general words, and words often play a huge role in how your team will see the goal. When a goal sounds more general, its related solutions become diverse. Teams often think of the goal as the final word of utterance and must find ways to utilize the available resources to achieve that particular goal. The more general it will be, the easier to mold its solutions.?

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How data analytics helps in removing barriers to innovative thinking??

It is said very often that our creativity dies over time, and we turn a blind eye towards a life with a dreadful look on our everyday responsibilities. Oftentimes, the way to unlock the potential of innovative thinking is to see what others are overlooking. Mental barriers often get created by fears that block our true potential for this natural ability we are born with.?

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Data analytics does wonder for removing these barriers and allows us to see things we were overlooking. Many business intelligence tools and advanced analytics get designed to enable us to see hidden insights from the vast data pool. It functions as a way to overcome mental barriers we overlook because of our information-flooded brains. When data gets presented in a visual format, and the unseen things become visible, that is when these barriers come off, and we can truly find innovative solutions to even the most challenging problems.?