Goals get us where we want to go, but innovation keeps us there and advancing. Our students had a hard time understanding what innovation is. Unfortunately, so do a lot of adults! Innovation requires always looking to do things better. Many people don’t want to fix what isn’t broken, but often that’s not the smart plan for most businesses. Of course, there are always the times it’s not. I’m thinking specifically of the first time Coke tried to change its taste. Businesses needing innovation provide technology or services. Those will always have a need for “doing it better.”
So, how does one innovate? That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Being an innovator takes practice. It takes not giving up when failure comes… because it will often. A true innovator never stops looking for the next best way to do or make something.
My advice to the kids is to start now. If they can think of ways to get the teacher to want to grade their projects first, they are becoming innovative. Entering competitions for engineering or robotics or the such is also a way to cultivate innovation.
Gifted children are already natural innovators. Many learn young that innovation is not welcome, though. Whether it’s a parent worn out from listening to thousands of ideas or a teacher who dismisses innovative ideas and requires all students to complete projects the same way, many adults don’t have enough patience to raise an innovator. Besides that, innovators tend to take things apart. You can’t innovate until you understand how the original works!
I would challenge you to take a look at what you don’t allow your kid to do. Is any part of this collection of activities actually a place where your child is innovating? Parents must be careful not to unintentionally squish innovation in our kids. You don’t have to treat every single project or action like it’s the cat’s meow, but you should be verbally rewarding your innovative child.
Encouraging innovation is not enough, though. You yourself need to model innovation, and you can easily involve the family. We have one family that I have mentioned before. The parents give the kids a budget and a time frame. All members of the family then research a destination to which they’d like the family to go. Itineraries and costs are presented, and the family chooses. What a great idea! Involving kids in some of the family procedures - say laundry decisions - is an excellent way to teach them that there is always a better way. That’s innovation!
-Michelle