Any search for innovation should ideally start with finding or identifying the problem and broadly understanding the given challenge. To do this, we must move from being the problem solvers we have been raised to be over many years to being problem finders or problem researchers.
There is more in the question than in the answer, as Leonardo da Vinci already knew in 1500 – and this has proven true time and again, right up to our own day, right up to innovation approaches such as design thinking.
This quick check is intended to help develop the mindset on the word problem in the team in the right direction and also provide concrete recommendations for action on how problem finders or researchers work.
If the mindset here is not right, for example because you hear words from many a manager such as: “We don’t cause problems where there are none at the moment! But how do you specifically and correctly go looking for problems? The answer to this question is as simple as it is insidious: “We ask questions” and “We question”.
Often we also hear: “Don’t open a new barrel!”. At this point, at the latest, it becomes clear that we not only need know-how to create innovations, but also a lot of energy to change the mindset in many a team.
