Lead Innovative Thinking and Practice

Lead Innovative
Thinking and Practice

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
Context of Response..................................................................................................................................3
Various tools and techniques to stimulate creative or innovative thinking..............................................3
Trends in thinking and emerging practices and how they relate to an organization’s current thinking
and practices............................................................................................................................................4
Develop own capacity to lead innovative thinking and practice in an organizational context.................5
Key concepts, current theories and processes for introducing, communicating, promoting and
supporting innovative thinking in an organizational context...................................................................5
Points of Reference....................................................................................................................................6
Generate innovative thinking and creativity............................................................................................6
Lead innovative practices........................................................................................................................7
Generate and support a culture of innovation..........................................................................................8
Sustain innovative thinking and practice.................................................................................................9
Hints for Response.....................................................................................................................................9
Compare and contrast current and past theories and thinking about innovation......................................9
Explain how theory and thinking on innovation and creativity can contribute to applied practice........10
Impact of leadership style on innovation in organisations, including how specific approaches may
encourage or inhibit innovation.............................................................................................................10
Relevance of organisational and industry context on innovation...........................................................11
Internal and external conditions or factors that impact on organisational innovation............................12
Strategies for identifying, assessing and managing risks associated with innovation............................12
Provide examples of innovation drivers in an organisation...................................................................13
Provide examples of innovation enablers in an organisation.................................................................13
Describe mechanisms at system or process level that can support innovative practices........................14
Challenges and barriers to innovation within an organisation and ways of overcoming them...............14
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Innovative thinking can be defined as the process of thinking something new and
innovative. It can help in converting an innovative and creative idea into practical application.
Being innovative has become a necessary skill for every individual to have if they want to stand
out of the competition (Block, Fisch and Van Praag, 2017). It means implementing innovative
and new ideas in order to improve products and services. Innovative thinking, simply means to
be able to consider something in a new and improved way. Innovation can differ from industry to
industry, i.e., an innovation in the educational industry will differ from the one in smartphone
industry. Educational systems around the world are different from each other among which the
Australia is reviewed as the one having of the leading systems in the world. This report reviews
the Australian Education system using various tools and techniques. It also explains the practice
of innovative thinking in an organizational context. Organization chosen for this report is
German International School Sydney, that offers complete school education from preschool to
Year 12. Respective report analyzes specific conditions for innovation and various issues that
can have an impact on both collective as well as individual innovative thinking. Various
strategies have been developed in order to foster a workplace culture that encourages innovation.
Apart from this, various challenges as well as barriers to innovation and the ways of overcoming
them within an organization have also been discussed.
Context of Response
Various tools and techniques to stimulate creative or innovative thinking
In today’s world, creative or innovative thinking has become an essential requirement for
individuals (Brodin, 2016). This is because it helps them looking at various situations and
problems through a fresh perspective. The different tools and techniques to stimulate creative or
innovative thinking are explained below –
Tools
 Google trends is a tool shows up to date information about what is it that people are
searching for. This can generate an opportunity for creative thinking.

 Ubersuggest is another tool that suggests the most popular keywords that are related to a
particular search query. This can provide an innovative inspiration for new topics that can
be covered.
 Content Strategy Generator is another valuable tool that can provide information about
relevant keywords (8 Creative Thinking Techniques and The Tools To Use, 2020).
Techniques
 Mind Mapping – It is also referred to as brainstorming can be defined as a diagram that
is used to organize information visually. The main purpose of this technique is to take up
all the ideas that come up during the discussion (Caldera, Desha and Dawes, 2017). Once
the discussion is over, the ideas are then critically analyzed and the most relevant ones
are selected. This is one of the most commonly used techniques for stimulating creative
or innovative thinking.
 Lateral thinking – In this technique, a step by step approach is adopted to find answers
to a particular problem. This allows people to re view the problem from a much more
creative point of view. Lateral thinking opens up different ways of dealing with a
situation.
Trends in thinking and emerging practices and how they relate to an organization’s current
thinking and practices
There are various practices that have emerged within the educational industry overtime
and have contributed to its complete transformation (Campbell and Huffington, 2019). German
International School Sydney is an educational institutional that offers complete school education
to students in preschool to the ones in Year 12. The school currently follows the NSW school
year calendar and has also adopted various trends of the educational industry within its system.
One of the major trends within the industry is Integrated Learning Solutions that provide
effective digital infrastructure requirements besides keeping traditional textbooks as base. The
management of German International School Sydney thinks that the retention of knowledge
among students improves when the learning process involves audio, video and other visuals
which the Australian Education System currently lacks. Virtual reality helps the students to
understand and learn things in an effective manner by experiencing a particular subject overall.
As per the view point of Kristina James, with the help of virtual reality, teachers can create any