Go ahead — innovate yourself

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Like Theseus’s ship in Athen’s harbor, we live in a perpetual state of becoming — replacing parts to keep us afloat, to keep us yar. Our body’s cells divide and regenerate. Our consciousness consumes time and experience, remapping synapses. The person you are is different than the person you were and from the person you will be. The art of living is accepting this perpetual state of transformation to embrace the evolution of our spirit. Supreme Court icon Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. reminds us that, “A mind that is stretched by new experiences can never go back to its old dimensions.”  

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Our careers, like our bodies, live in a constant state of metamorphosis. We start out professional lives with little sense of the path our career choices make for us to walk upon.   Branches of experience emerge as moments to apprentice, to learn, to fail and to succeed, all actions that expand the practices we can draw upon when faced with the current challenge or opportunity.  Like the ancient Chinese proverb teaches us, we all start by carrying small stones throughout our career to, in the end, move mountains. We develop our careers one stone at a time.

This is the reason that career development is a power skill worthy of our deliberate attention as we map out our professional lives.

Technology's impact on innovation

Organizations are constantly integrating and removing technologies from the bundle that they leverage to achieve a shared goal. The theoretical description of this is an organization’s socio-technical environment. Sometimes, those integrations go badly. Sometimes they go well. The introduction of new technologies into the socio-technical environment of your organization presents opportunities for innovation of processes and products.  It also presents an opportunity for career development.

Sam Palazzolo, managing director at Tip of the Spear Ventures, describes the impact that being an expert in a new technology can have on your career development in his 2023 article “Career Growth Through Innovation: The Power of Technological Solutions in the Workplace.”

“Successful technology adoption is a key element in leading change management initiatives,” Palazzolo writes. “Individuals who excel in managing new capabilities and delivering positive outcomes are often recognized and promoted within their organizations.”

Mastering new technologies gives you the space to explore new ways that technology can improve your internal and external customers’ experiences. Your expertise can decrease the time, budget and effort required to meet a key part of your value proposition. This new skill set also opens the possibility to leverage that technological expertise toward opportunities with other organizations like your ­­­current one, or even with the solutions provider who developed that technology. That first cave dweller who locked in how to make fire, wow, they really had their pick of the tribes to join.

Develop your career and innovation muscles

Watching kids grow up is a fascinating and frightening experience. They are in a constant state of change, as proven by the endless need to buy them new clothes because They. Just. Keep. Growing. (Side note, why hasn’t someone invented an expandable shoe yet? It makes me crazy that I must keep buying these people new shoes every six months!)  From the newborn stage to the teenage years, kids are constantly experimenting to learn how to make their body work as intended, how to respond to social situations correctly, and fingers crossed, how to put dishes in the dishwasher the right way.

While we may feel like adults when we begin our professional lives, it is incredibly important to maintain a childlike embrace of experimentation to develop our careers and improve our innovation skill sets.  In his 2021 book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know, Wharton School professor at the University of Pennsylvania Adam Grant implores us to embrace the unknown in the search for innovation. He offers an outlook we can all embrace: Become more comfortable with the uncomfortableness of “I don’t know (yet).”   In a 2021 article on the book, author Katy White outlines four approaches that Grant shares with his readers to innovate through experimentation.

• Think like a scientist. Acknowledge that our world is dynamic, and we are “as motivated to find reasons why [we] might be wrong as reasons why [we] might be right,” as Adam explains.
• Create a challenge network … that includes yourself. Surround yourself with people who challenge you and ask them to continue challenging your beliefs, then revisit your formerly held opinions and ask, “Do I agree with my past self?”
• Enable brave spaces. Help others develop confident humility by enabling spaces where people feel psychologically safe but take intellectual risks.
• Lead from your values. When you’re in scientist mode and constantly gathering new information, your opinions may need to change to remain aligned with your values. If you gather new information while rooted in your values, you can unlock novel solutions instead of being attached to a specific course of action.

Be the captain of your career development

Most people want those around them to succeed and grow in their careers, whether it is taking on new skill sets, taking on managerial responsibilities or becoming thought leaders in their given field. But as much as you might want that for others you care about, it is imperative that they themselves internalize that desire and take actions to grow their own career. The supremely innovative Diana Ross guides us on our path toward career development reminding us that, “You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”

In order to prepare for the journey toward that “golden dream,” you have to learn how to steer the ship. Global learning and development company eSoftskills lays out four methods to build innovation into your career development activities. They recommend you:

• Embrace an entrepreneurial mindset. Be proactive, take calculated risks and seek opportunities for growth and improvement.
• Stay updated with industry trends. Actively seek knowledge to identify emerging opportunities and position yourself as a valuable asset.
• Seek out networking opportunities. Learn how to be comfortable with connecting with like-minded professionals to exchange ideas and explore potential collaborations.
• Embrace a culture of continuous learning. Seek out opportunities for learning and growth, such as attending workshops, taking online courses or pursuing advanced degrees to enhance your skills and broaden your knowledge base.

The long and winding road

If we are lucky, our professional life will be a major part of our overall life. Humans are creatures with a surplus of energy and inventiveness, and our career gives many people some type of shape, space and mission to dedicate that surplus to achieve a shared mission. With the time frame of a lifetime in mind, it is important to take your time as you walk down that path toward the future of your career.

Consider what is right for you now, but never forget what is right for you next. Remember that each time you take another step on your path of career development, you lead yourself farther away from your starting point. It’s important to make sure that the distance you are traveling leads toward the place you want to go.

Confucius teaches us that, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” So, take your time but always keep moving forward with your career development.  You’ll find yourself transformed by the journey.   

Adam Bazer, MPD, is senior director of knowledge product development at the American Society for Health Care Engineering.