Business Innovation: 5 Disruptive Technology Leaders Tell You How To Develop Creativity and Innovation In The Workplace
American Gene Technologies® (AGT™) recently hosted a panel of thought leaders from five different industries at the Hot Technologies & Innovations event and asked each panelist, "How do you spark creativity in your company and keep it evolving?"
Their answers revealed why each innovator heads a successful, forward-facing enterprise, one that attracts the best talent, while providing fertile ground for the seeds of creativity to grow. Here are their suggestions:
1. Keep An Open Mind (Even When Your Eyes Are Closed)
“Coming at things from different angles really opens up the opportunity for creativity. I find that most of my creative moments happen during non-work hours. Some of my best ideas happen as I’m going to sleep or wake up in the middle of the night. I grab my cell phone from my nightstand and send myself an email so I won’t forget any idea I come up with while dreaming.”
Jeff Galvin, CEO, American Gene Technologies (AGT)
Biotechnology, Gene & Cell Therapy
2. Practice Active Listening And Encourage New Voices
“One tool we use is to go out on a regular basis to conduct customer discovery interviews…Three or four people will go to the customer that we are trying to solve the problem for, without assumptions. We let the people we are trying to serve articulate and the reason we have multiple people there is because each one will pick up on different threads from the conversation…We bring them back, post them on boards and have our Innovation Team draw those things out and discuss them…We also encourage interdisciplinary interests. This approach is like bringing a musician into a math problem. Such interdisciplinary matches can slice right through a problem and provide inspiration.”
Shahab Kaviani, Co-Founder of Breezio and Director of AARP Foundation
Health IT
3. Invite Everyone to the Table
“I hung a world map upside down on my office wall to encourage looking at things from a different perspective…and we encourage people to set up brainstorming meetings where they bring people not normally expected to attend the meeting. By inviting those people, we’ll get a different point of view. I think it’s very helpful to find ideas from across the entire organization.”
Bill Cronin, Chief Revenue Officer, Xometry
3D Printing
4. Encourage Diversity
“Creativity is about the people you bring in. Logistics can be taught, but are you bringing in diverse talents, disciplines, people who think differently, are of a different ethnicity and gender? Do you have 50% women? Diversity brings differences in thinking…Also allow people space to innovate, the time to think, the space to fail and creativity will continue.”
Dr. Annica Wayman, Associate Dean for Shady Grove Affairs in the College of Natural & Mathematical Sciences, Universities of Shady Grove (UMD)
Advanced Education
Event Footage & Photos
Watch the panel discussion from the Hot Technologies & Innovations Conference here, or visit: https://youtu.be/sieAcCD26IE
Photos taken at the event:
You can Download the Zip folder of the entire gallery HERE
For more information on American Gene Technologies, visit our website at https://www.americangene.com
