Innovation

Dr. Gary Epler – The new way of life is knowing who you are moment by moment. Today we’re going to talk about innovation and thinking from the mind.

Joan – What do you mean by innovation?

Innovation is creating a product or service that is entirely new.

What’s the difference between an innovative product and a standard product?

An innovative product is used by billions of people throughout the world making people’s lives easier or improving their lives.

What type of people are innovators?

I call them trial-and-error people.

What do you mean?

It’s like it sounds. People try something new. It fails. They try again. It fails. They repeat and continue to repeat until they develop an innovation.

What’s the other way to develop a product?

With planners. People who methodically plan product development and continue to plan until they get it right. There are no failures. Planners bring stability to the organization through operations and regulatory management. Trial & error people create innovative products and services.

Sounds like a combination of innovators and planners is the best approach.

You’re right, the combination is the best option. Today we’re going to talk about innovators.

What does it take for successful innovation?

Innovation comes from a team of people with different cultures and from different parts of the world with ideas from the periphery, from the edge. A UPenn study showed that teams from within a company have massive amounts of similar information, and they quickly develop good products. However, teams with geographic and cultural differences take a long time to develop a product, but these teams develop the best products.

What else is needed for innovation?

A governmental structure that creates an environment for innovators, which is the right mix of personal freedom and business regulations. For example, a country in the distant past developed innovations that continue to be used to the present time, but governmental structures changed that resulted in shifting innovation from that country to another part of the world. Regulations are for intellectual property protection and uniform accounting rules. Innovation creates the strongest, most vibrant countries in the world.

How do you develop an innovative product or service?

There are three components. Frist, apply the Eplerian principle of stop thinking from the head cingulate stress center. Practice this every day. If you think about your problems, upset with yourself, trying to be someone else, or thinking about failing, then you’re thinking from the stress center. If you’re stressed, you’re thinking about yourself from the head. You can only think from one location at a time; therefore, if you’re stressed and thinking about your problems, then you can’t think from the mind with creativity and innovation. Stop thinking from the head stress center.

What’s the second?

Learn to think from the mind quickly and automatically. The mind is outside the body and has unlimited knowledge about the past, the present, and the future. Because the mind is outside the body, you need to be in a slow alpha brainwave state, not in the everyday highspeed beta brainwave state. Everyone experiences this alpha brainwave state. It occurs during daydreaming and meditation. Learn to be in the slow brainwave state naturally for innovative ideas.

What’s the third component for developing innovative products and services?

Develop an egalitarian team with five to seven individuals who have strong ties from different cultural and geographic locations. Centralized teams with similar members can quickly develop good products. They make choices that are familiar not necessarily the best. Egalitarian teams develop innovative products. When the company grows, it’s important to include frontline people and people from the outer banks in decisions. For example, a study of major league baseball teams showed that using the opinions of the established, entrenched scouts produced good teams but having an equal voice for all scouts and coaching staff who each see something different creates championship teams.

What lifestyle is typical for innovators?

Trial & error innovators live with failures, often have negative cash flow, and never retire. Innovators have failure after failure, but also extraordinary international successes. Innovators are not discouraged by failures. These failures provide energy to try something new. Not so with investors, they are deterred by failures and quickly take away the money, but that’s the part of the path to innovation. Being a trial & error person is filled with enormous risk and entrepreneurial fear in exchange for an exciting and invigorating life.

Innovation is fundamental for products and services that make life easier and improve the lives of billions of people. Do you have any closing comments?

Dr. Gary Epler – Innovation is creating a product or service that is entirely new. This requires learning to stop thinking from the stress center and think from the mind for creative ways to help people and innovative ideas to improve people’s lives. Be exceptional by being your true self.