Leadership and Innovation Characteristics - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 64

apply it in another environment - perhaps soldiers serving in hot climates like
Afghanistan - is an association technique.
Questioning The ability to ask “what if,” “why,” and “why not” questions
that challenge the status quo, see the bigger picture, and discover available
resources. Asking how things are and how they might be changed.
Observation Carefully observing and watching the world around you to gain
insights and ideas about emerging and current needs and different or new ways to
meet these needs. Attention to details, most notably in other people's behavior.
The success of a product is impacted by consumers' responses to it. Take notice!
Experiment Exploring by doing! Evaluating a concept, idea, or theory expe-
rientially by trying something new, taking things apart, building computer or
physical simulations or prototypes. Experimenting can be seen in the consistent
exploration of new worlds. While many of us are most comfortable in our own
environment (we eat at the same restaurants, even order the same meals!), being
able to experiment helps us develop the new and the different perspectives or ideas.
Networking Actively engaging in conversations and searching for new
ideas by talking to people who offer diverse perspectives and viewpoints. The
ability to talk and learn from people that you have nothing in common with is
a valuable ability as an innovator. Having a certain comfort level talking to and
learning from people that are very different from us is becoming more and more
important for professionals in every walk of life. Networking is the foundation
on which a lot of this is built.
So why do some people question, observe, network, and experiment more
frequently than others? The authors say it has to do with courage. The more
people practice these skills, the more confident they become. So a healthy com-
bination of courage, confidence, and a willingness to do what hasn't been done
is essential in stepping up your innovation potential.
As we look ahead to the next generation, it's important to understand how to
encourage more innovation in our young people. Professor Tony Wagner, a mem-
ber of Harvard's Technology Entrepreneurship Center, explores the characteristics
and qualities that should be developed in young people to make them future inno-
vators. In the topic Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will
Change the World [2] , the author proposes four main qualities, similar to those
previously discussed, as key characteristics of innovators. These qualities include:

Curiosity: Consistently asking good questions and a desire to understand
concepts or ideas at a deeper level

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Collaboration: An eagerness to listen to and learn from others who have
distinct perspectives and expertise

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Associative or integrative thinking: The ability to relate ideas to different
and diverse environments and bring together multiple perspectives about
an idea

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A bias toward action and experimentation: Regularly conducting experiments,
study, or some form of action to evaluate an idea

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