Innovation is something organizations the world over are craving as they strive to cope with these most uncertain of times.  In his latest book, Humanocracy, London Business School’s Gary Hamel teams up with his Management Lab colleague Michele Zanini to explore how organizations can better structure themselves for the modern age.

While much of the book is about ways to overcome bureaucracy, they also provide some tips for us as individuals to become more adaptable.  The pair outline four key, perceptual habits that they they believe are particularly powerful in opening up our minds to new opportunities.

1. Challenge unexamined assumptions – It’s common for orthodoxies to emerge that become difficult to overcome in any field.  In science, it’s therefore common for major breakthroughs to come via young scientists who ‘don’t know how things should be’.  Similarly, in areas such as open innovation, the best solutions are often proposed by those operating outside of their core field, who are similarly indisposed of the norms of that discipline.Hamel argues for a ‘beginner mindset’, which can help draw out the assumptions in a discipline and help one to inquire what would happen if those assumptions are challenged.
2. Be alert to what’s changing – It’s famously said that the future already exists, it’s just unevenly distributed, and it’s true that instances of truly novel invention are rare.  Once you accept that truism, it becomes more a case of knowing where to look to spot trends as they enter the horizon.For incumbents, they can often get suckered into a narrow horizon that’s defined by their particular industry, and so miss the trends emerging in adjacent fields that will eventually disrupt them.
3. Repurpose skills and assets – We’re often quite proud of our skills, capabilities, and strengths, but that pride can often blind us to how these skills can be adapted to work for us in the future.  It’s quite probable that we can repurpose our capabilities to thrive in new ways, if only we begin looking.
4. Unearth the unmet needs – Clayton Christensen famously refers to this as ‘jobs to be done’, and it’s a detailed understanding of just what it is your customers are trying to achieve.  Often we’re at too much of a distance from our customers to truly appreciate their pain points, and strive to ease that pain wherever possible.

“The future isn’t a lion in the veld.  It doesn’t pad stealthily through the long grass and suddenly spring upon its prey – though to the inattentive it can seem that way,” Hamel says.  “The future can usually be seen, or imagined, a long way off, and with training and practice, anyone can learn to open their mind to new possibilities, yet few organizations have helped their employees masters these skills.”