(http://the.lavida.me.uk)

BY KIRAN SOOD – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Are employers utilizing all the brain power that is available in their offices and factories? Not exactly.

According to a recent study conducted by River Bend Research in Indianapolis, companies are not as smart as they would like to think. [...]]]>

(http://the.lavida.me.uk)

BY KIRAN SOOD – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Are employers utilizing all the brain power that is available in their offices and factories? Not exactly.

According to a recent study conducted by River Bend Research in Indianapolis, companies are not as smart as they would like to think. The research firm estimates that the average employee utilizes less than 4 percent of his or her knowledge capacity to perform his or her job.

Without tapping fully into the brain power of its employees, a company is at a loss for new ideas to plant the seeds of innovation in the future.

“An innovative thinker must purposefully challenge dominant ideas present in every field in order to conceive new possibilities,” says Paul Sloane, a leading speaker on innovation in the United Kingdom. This is the only way to think of things that no one else thinks of. The key, he says, is to deliberately take a different approach to the issue from everyone else.

On his Web site, Design Innovation, Sloane advocates taking a different view in order to transform society. Innovation lies in deviating from the traditional view – not by simply furthering already developed ideas. Instead, employees seeking to gain new insight must challenge assumptions and conceive new ideas.

In today’s economy, innovation is at the forefront as employers challenge their employees to perform their work more accurately, cost-effectively, and efficiently. Employees are working more overtime in order to prove their worth. Another way to prove that they’re indispensable is through new ideas and creativity.

As companies are shrinking rather than growing their workforce, they are looking inward for employees who can quickly adapt to a changing environment and have great capacities to contribute.

Part of succeeding in today’s economy means taking risks and formulating ideas for new products and innovations that could revolutionize the way a company does business. Part of that responsibility lies in each employee of each company, no matter how big or how small. Every employee, thinking innovatively, can ensure the future of a company for a long time to come.