What are the basic attitudes to enable the innovation: Creativity Openness Adaptation

We have all heard variations of “changing your mindset will change your life”. This statement has been backed by a number of studies on the influence of mindsets and cultural development surrounding innovation. When a group of people with similar mindsets comes together it forms a culture, and with the right mindset that culture could lead to innovation. But how exactly does it happen?Dr. Oranee Tangphao is an expert in clinical drug development who worked in a renowned research and development facility in the US and was involved in a number of innovation project management. In the following paragraphs, she offers her perspective on healthcare innovation development in Thailand.

Creativity and Embracing the risksMany people believe that the path to innovation is a rocky road that can only be navigated with a wealth of knowledge, technological advancement, and resources. However, Dr. Oranee sees an innovative mindset as the first and most important element.Academics believe that over 90% of children are naturally creative but also that this number drops to less than 10% when they reach adulthood. This observation has raised some important questions, like how our maturing process hinders the development of creativity, how our creativity is affected by education systems, and how we can unlock creative mindsets.In the age of globalization, most academics agree that innovation-focused countries tend to do better economically and developmentally. Taking risks is an inevitable part of innovation. When people come up with a new idea to solve an existing problem, the primary challenges they face are being open to change, embracing the risk of failure, learning from failures, and using failures to improve themselves, their team, and their knowledge to create better results.Having the right incentive is also a critical part of nurturing innovation. With the right incentive system, people will be motivated to seek new ideas, overcome the fear of failing or not reaching the desired outcome, and free themselves from “low-risk, low-reward” projects. If a country or a company is looking to diversify their investment, their leaders should always consider both risks and rewards to promote innovative development.

There is more to learning than just memorizingAll learning endeavors can be categorized into 3 levels:1. Information – can be found from various sources, such as books or the internet.2. Knowledge – is the product of processing and understanding the learned information.3. Wisdom – is gained by applying the learned knowledge to a new situation or circumstance and continuously improving.Reaching the wisdom stage is essential for innovation. Wisdom creates opportunities to learn and confirm new methodologies in scientific settings as well as critical thinking. In the Thai education system — especially at the university level — students are often taught to find information and memorize it, making it hard to apply their knowledge outside of the classroom or very specific situations. The question is: How do we change the education system if we want graduates to reach their full potential and go on to become innovators?

There are many other factors which could improve the education system. The key question we need to answer is: How ready are we to support innovation? Are we ready to break out of the status quo and accept the changes? What can we do to shift our society to an innovation economy in the generations to come?

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