What must be done to learn at the entrepreneurial level?
To change it is necessary to learn.
Learning is a personal process by which we store experiences for the future and that requires motivation, time and the opportunity to practice and re-practice a task. It is an internal process but externally modifiable.
At the business level, all staff must be aligned in each of the key sectors of the company.
It matters as much what you know as what you do with what you know, and to activate continuous improvement.
What actions must the company take to have creative leaders?
The role of the supervisor is not exclusively passive of performance verifier, but rather of activator of the proactive participation of his work team.
Creativity is thinking something different in our context and Innovation is doing something different in our context.
The concept of what a creative can generate for the benefit of your company is the first step, secondly, understanding that it is not enough to decree that your supervisors must become creative, but rather that it is necessary to adopt a technical and tactical program of skills development leadership and creators of contexts, people, processes and products.
In the market there are many leadership models, each one proclaiming to be the best, however, it can be seen that most of such models only serve to entertain or awaken a short-term motivation.
Because they do not develop skills and when they go out into the world they face the disappointment that they were never taught how to do it.
So it is advisable to be very careful when choosing the program that best suits the idiosyncratic conditions of your staff and their specific needs, which among other things, are never short courses, but true programs of skill development and systematic change of attitudes ».
Why don't many Latin American companies accept creativity as an organizational value?
There are two main reasons, the first is that creativity has been associated exclusively with the field of marketing and advertising and specifically with the generation of "ingenious" advertisements, it is enough to remember that employees of advertising agencies call themselves "creative", even when their products, many times seem precisely to lack originality and fine finish.
The second is because, as in the leadership issue, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of pseudo-consultants in creativity and innovation who all they do in their "brand new courses" is to entertain the participants by having a weekend. very nice, with dozens of sheets full of ideas, not always aimed at the solutions needed, and some of these characters have even included magic tricks, fun group techniques, etc. in their training "routine".
At the end of the course, the participants had fun, were entertained, rested, created a good atmosphere, but did not acquire new skills to generate creative transformations.
We only recommend systematic Creativity and Innovation programs, to differentiate them from those that only have a recreational or cathartic playful nature.
Systematized Creativity allows to generate solutions to problems that have been dragging along over the years, transform their production systems, generate new products or services, generate new market penetration strategies, create new market niches and develop competitive advantages.
If your creativity and innovation consultants are not able to offer you this, then they are dealing with charlatans.
Nowadays, among professionals there is a lot of talk about Emotional Intelligence (EI), how is this concept defined?
- Emotional intelligence is a new construction for which, even in the circles of professionals dedicated to it, a complete definition is still sought, which means that not much is known yet. However, we all have emotions and we know what we are referring to. Some recognized people make definitions such as:
Some specialists say that it is the ability to perceive and express emotions, to assimilate emotions in thought, to understand and reason with emotions and to regulate emotions in oneself and in others.
For Goleman it is the ability to recognize our own feelings, the feelings of others, motivate ourselves and properly handle the relationships we have with others and with ourselves.
Others refer to the set of personnel management skills and social skills that allow us to succeed in the workplace and in life in general.
What all the authors seem to agree on is what Goleman points out as aptitudes for recognizing and regulating one's own emotions and those of others.
Searching for a definition seems to have become hunting and capturing something that although we are not yet able to handle it, how are we going to define it well?
We will find the clearest definition as we focus on understanding our own emotions from our own experience and not from a theoretical idea.
In any case, it can be said that emotional intelligence is being willing to take advantage of those emotions that are an intrinsic part of human beings and transform them to our benefit, allowing them to interact naturally.
What are the differences between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Practical Intelligence (PI)?
The differences between emotional intelligence and practical intelligence are created by us, our fears and blocks because in reality the only thing we need is to take the step of wanting to learn through a good practical method to transform emotions.
Emotional Intelligence is at the theoretical and conceptual level and practical Intelligence is at the level of experience.
We should not speak of differences but of distances between one and the other. What separates one from the other is our mind, we believe that we can solve with ideas something that is solved simply with facts.
And we will not be able to understand emotions if we do not look at them from other angles and points of view, so if the distance that separates one from another is our mind, then what we will have to do is begin to clear our mind of fears, prejudices and taboos that do not let us see clearly.
As we all know, there are employees who know the theory of their work very well. However, in practice they are not very efficient. Why is this situation?
This question is very generic but suppose that two people with the same socio-cultural and economic characteristics study a career at the university, while they are in the university there are no differences between them, they are studying.
The distinctions begin when looking for work, here it no longer has anything to do with what they know but how they use it, that is, how they use their skills.
Therefore, a worker will be efficient if he develops human skills for his benefit, for example, controlling himself in extreme situations, modifying situations, and all this to surround himself with an environment that benefits him and therefore his company.
Perhaps we should begin to accept how important an academic training is as an in-depth human training.
How can Emotional Intelligence (EI) help an organization achieve its goals?
If the goal of an organization is to achieve a good position in the market and significant benefits without taking into account human capital in every conceivable way, then such organizations will not be able to help the work that is done on human quality.
HR managers do not have it easy at all, on the one hand, there are powerful companies that exert great influence over the company to get the most out of their consulting situation. On the other hand, the lack of time in all companies is a weak point that many take advantage of.
Some HR managers clearly reflect the chaos in which their companies are immersed and manifest it in their desperate acts to find a method that in a single day will make them change what in many years they cannot. It is wanting others to solve problems that we do not want to solve. It is passing the rotten apple to another. These companies will not believe in a practical method of working on human quality either.
The work done on this topic can only help companies that incorporate a practical work project on human quality into their business philosophy. Only an awake manager will see the right path, others will see fear, shame, waste of time…
Only companies that spend time and change their point of view and do it with facts will benefit.
Every company has an intellectual capital and an emotional capital, how are both linked?
What companies have is potential human capital and that not only does it depend on them to take the necessary measures to benefit, but the main responsible but also benefited are the workers.
Intellectual capital is controlled by the company and talking about emotional capital is more revolutionary because it is not controllable by the company, this is part of the interior of a person and, therefore, only people individually and voluntarily have the last word when accepting human development programs.
So what you have to try is to link the company and the worker, both have to do a job of complicity to benefit.
All times of crisis simultaneously imply new opportunities, but how can people take advantage of these opportunities?
There are many types of seizures with their different causes and effects. In some cases, crises come because we give too much importance to some things and we abandon others that are also important.
Assuming that we are talking about a natural crisis, that is, because things change naturally, in this case what we simply have to do is accept that nothing is forever and that everything comes to an end.
Actually, that is the natural disposition with which we should get up every day, knowing that everything can change and what we simply have to do is try to do things as well as possible without worrying about what will happen when it is over? In this way we do not resist the change that is constantly taking place in the company and in life.
Every crisis gives us the opportunity to recognize mistakes, learn from them and modify what is necessary.
It gives us the opportunity to know what has not been done well and instead of wasting time looking for people responsible, the most useful thing is not to repeat the mistake. Ultimately, regardless of what caused a crisis, the greatest opportunity we can seize is to learn.
If our daily attitude is to want to learn from mistakes, crises will not be seen as such but as a new opportunity to learn. Being willing to learn from mistakes is to have left behind some emotions that harm us, or what is the same, is to have cleared our mind of emotions such as shame, pride, jealousy, self-love, the desire to excel, fear, among others.
How can Emotional Intelligence (EI) make workers more creative?
Emotional intelligence alone cannot make workers more creative. What can make them more creative is emotional intelligence applied from the point of view of freedom.
Creativity is a human value that can be widely developed.
When people free ourselves from resentment, hatred, envy, stress, bad mood… we clear part of our mind, it allows us to focus on enjoying things, sharing ideas and working in an interior environment free of obstacles, from there each worker will be able to make the best of it.
The creativity is partly spontaneous and originated in the right hemisphere, but partly also a deliberate effort from the left hemisphere, which applies valid techniques and tools to generate new ideas.
And how do you become an Innovator and an inventor?
The Innovator must reach the Market with his idea and action plan and impose his idea through creativity and advertising.
On the other hand, the inventor must know in depth a given problem, have a broad knowledge of the laws of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, materials sciences and consolidate all this in a systematic strategy like TRIZ.
It is not a matter of randomly testing what could work but of applying the specific and direct tool.
And what does an inventor do?
Every invention is a long way to the impossible.
But the impossible means the impossible with current and existing media.
Creativity is the first step towards invention and the inventor is the one who finds and applies a new concept, making the impossible become possible.
Is it true that learning causes changes in the shape of the brain?
Learning changes many things. Animal studies show that the areas of the brain that control movement, when training for complex movement, experience an increase in the area of the cerebral cortex dedicated to that function.
That happens with violinists, for example. It is not that the brain is getting bigger or smaller, it is a change in its computational characteristics.
A very simple test is to repeat to a group of children and young people, words over and over again, while mapping their brains.
Each time we repeated the words to them, their brains became faster and more efficient. As an indicator, the level of oxygen demand in the blood is measured, which was progressively reduced because the brain worked more efficiently.
So what changed was not the shape of the brain, but its mechanisms.
How is knowledge and creativity built?
I have an educational and ideological stance and learning is built from a dual nature: natural and social.
I don't believe that to be creative you necessarily have to modify yourself internally.
If you are motivated and know the tools that awaken your generation of ideas, you are already on your way.
Then you must have the knowledge of a theory like TRIZ and apply it systematically.
Creativity is the first step on a long road through Innovation and if you have perseverance it ends in Invention.
Can a particular person be taught to be creative?
Yes, of course, just as you can teach someone to play tennis, you can teach a person to optimize the creativity that companies require. Because companies do not require any type of creativity, they require a specific and productive type.
Business creativity has characteristics, for example you need a great production of ideas, time management, apply a consistent theory like TRIZ and creativity must be taught within the limits that the organization has, that is what matters.
Is a good climate necessary for people to be creative?
There must necessarily be a climate of trust, free expression, intellectual freedom, a good mood, but it depends on how good humor is understood.
American humor is one thing and local humor is another.
What do you value in the creativity gurus?
They are very few, De Bono, Altshuller, Michalko, Von Oech, Rodríguez Mauro, Gardner and some others.
The most valued by me, is that there is a continuous growth and a wide spectrum of application of his theories and presentations over the years. Avoiding repetition is a creative sign.
Repeating constantly and not growing is a sign of zero creativity and it is not possible to teach creativity without being creative.
Do you criticize anything about current teachers?
I do not think it is valid to teach creativity as something internal, secret and inaccessible of the person or a mystery to unravel.
What is the general basis of agreement between recognized specialists should be taught first, and only then and as a complement, what one thinks individually. If this is not done, the creative and innovative spectrum is shortened and one falls into the selfish attitude, of believing that we can reinvent the wheel.
Therefore, it is also true that advertising creativity has different methods from industrial innovation than from artistic creation.
In addition, in each context, the appropriate tool must be used, supplemented with the respective knowledge.
Finally the workshops, seminars and exercises must be prepared with variety, motivation and application to the context of the students.
What must be done in Latin America to enter the first world?
I throw you some ideas:
In all rich countries, the number of young people who choose to dedicate themselves to science and engineering despite being low, is something that is motivated by scholarships or internships.
In addition, children in elementary and middle schools should do fun projects in science workshops, like designing a little submarine or a robot, with brain teasers and creative problems, or learning Altshuller's inventive principles.
So it is understood that science and invention are tools to do what you want to do, and not a fence that you have to jump to get a good job.
2-There are Programs such as ALFA III of the European Community that provide technical assistance and updating to teachers of Latin American Universities to support the development of Innovation and Design of Industrial Products, where the EU participates with up to 90% of the Internationally recognized instructor expenses.
3-Universities must update subjects and curricula accompanying changes and globalization. In this sense, private universities, at least in Argentina, are better positioned for challenges and changes because they are more unstructured.
4-As a professional, you should think that your knowledge and skills are degraded in less than five years, so your education must be continuous and understand that postgraduate degrees are already a necessity.
5-Also consider that every two years knowledge is doubled and then you will see the tremendous cultural and educational effort that we must make in our colleges and universities to keep up with this.
Access and information processing are similar in a computer and in a human brain?
One of the differences between computers and the brain lies precisely in data storage.
Computers have objective access to all the information they contain, while people access information by context, that is, we remember linked sets of information.
This has great implications in marital relationships, because as soon as we remember that once our husband did not clean the kitchen, we will automatically remember all the times that he did not do it, discarding all the times that he did.
