www.womanthismonth.com 53 December 2013 decision-making too. Using metaphors is an imaginative way of clarifying understanding; it also helps with memory skills. Innovation index We are often living our lives as mothers out of habit or by relying or modelling the way our mother was with us. It’s also important to discover, through intrapersonal awareness, what your reasons for those habits are and also if you wish to change them. Thankfully, we are all different otherwise life would be boring and our children, if drowned by our conditioning, would all turn out the same. The more awareness we have about our own thought processes, the more we can develop our skills, knowledge and behaviours and encourage our children to do the same too. Below are six different types of innovators. Together they form an innovation index or typologies. Ideally, we need all these different innovative personality types to ensure true creativity. Discover your preferred type, whilst also understanding your development areas to increase your creative talent. Each of these cognitive dimensions has its strengths and development areas. There are no good, bad, right or wrong. The clarifier is investigative, checks understanding and puts things in context. They won’t want to move on until they understand. They may drive their children bonkers at times! The strategist examines patterns and meanings, visualises outcomes, and transforms. She is imaginative and assertive. They don’t like fine details, so they may hate day–to-day chores. The critique looks for blind spots. She is evaluative, assertive and resilient. She reasons and checks for accuracy and relevance. Critiques may slow decisions down. They need to self-regulate to ensure they have an impact as opposed to opposition. The adapter experiments and uses transition management skills. She is a doer, often sociable, open to change, supportive, open-minded and flexible. They may start more things than they can finish. Sometimes, they need to slow down. The theorist is a thinker, who can develop and re-design. She is structured and likes theories and facts. She may work as an individualist and is known to re-examine. Theorists don’t always consider practical implications. Yet they do like to see things drawn out clearly. The perspective person is non judgmental, flexible, non linear and is an influencer. She has a free flow of ideas, can work under pressure and sees different perspectives. These people question things, but may go off at a tangent. Innovation is influenced by everything, the clothes we wear, the colours we are around, the weather, the food we eat, the temperature and the environment we work in. Identify the moments when you are most innovative to understand what works for you. Go to that place to help you facilitate your child’s learning as innovation is also about supporting and building upon others’ ideas. It is not about imposing your own thoughts and beliefs. It is about encouraging positive energy and allowing the freedom of time and resources to support better relationships. Energy works at its best when it is fuelled by positive emotions. Being creative is fun for some and scary for others. Where do you lie on a creative continuum? More imprtantly, where do you want to be? g Beckett McInroy Consultancy (BMC) delivers a range of workshops, psychometric profiling tools and coaching across the GCC to enable personal and professional potential. Visit www.beckettmcinroy.com or email [email protected]. Being creative is fun for some and scary for others Consider what shoes you wear, metaphorically or physically, most of the time as a mother. Which is your most preferred shoe style and how about trying on your least preferred style on occasions? High heels: Classy, elegant and confident, this person can play the devil’s advocate by questioning ideas, seeing that there may be up-shots of certain decisions. Sandals: This person is flexible and uses their intuition or gut reaction when making decisions. They are pretty grounded too and they may not like relying on theory. Wellington boots: This person is methodical. They follow a road map and don’t mind getting ‘stuck in’ or getting messy. Slippers: This person likes to make everyone happy. They nurture, make the tea (and cake) and can’t be around confrontation. Trainers: This person thinks fast. They are pace setters and ensure things get done. Yet they hate fine details. None: This person is a free spirit. They have tonnes of ideas and need to ensure they work with people who can roll them out. They ignite innovation. They are the spark where it all starts. What your shoes say about you
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