A book that helps professionals develop new-age skills

Team L&M

Author Rajesh Srivastava’s recently released book The 10 New Life-Changing Skills: Get Them & Get Ahead (Penguin Random House India), aims at helping readers develop new-age skills and prepares them for thinking and reflective jobs.
Full of incredible insights, the book equips professionals with necessary skills such as creativity, problem-solving, innovation, and design thinking, among others so that they can remain relevant in an ever-changing business world.
Following is an extract from the book (Page 18-23)

Creativity Enablers:
There are innumerable techniques to enable creativity.

Enabler 1: Unbounded Curiosity
During our childhood we are at our creative best, because we are curious. Nothing is too small to escape our curiosity. As we grow up, the child inside us starts to die and along with it, our curiosity. We can be creative again by reawakening the child inside us and becoming curious. This enabled George de Mestral, a Swiss electrical engineer, to discover Velcro. While hunting in the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, he realized that the tiny hooks of the cockleburs were stuck to his pants and to his dog. He got curious and wondered how they attached themselves. Under the scrutiny of the microscope, he observed the hooks engaging the loops in the fabric of his pants. He duplicated Mother Nature’s hook and fastener and branded it Velcro.33 Today, Velcro fasteners are used in clothing to replace buttons, in shoes to replace laces, and even in medical bandages.
To reawaken the child in you, renew friendships with five childhood friends: Why? Where? When? What? How? Let them be your constant companions and use them ceaselessly.
If this sounds complicated, then follow the advice of Albert Einstein: question everything!

Enabler 2: Keen Observation
Robert Taylor had a keen sense of observation. This made him observe how soap appeared while it was used in bathrooms. Zooming in on the soap dish, he noticed an unpleasant puddle of ooze in an otherwise spotless setting. It was an appalling sight. He felt that the answer was liquid soap dispensed from a beautiful pump dispenser. That is how SoftSoap was born.
You may be tempted to certify yourself as having keen observation skills and claiming that nothing escapes your observation. i thought so too till i administered a drawing test to myself. i challenged myself to draw the face of the watch that i see every day. I drew it, but missed many details that make it distinctive. Then it dawned on me that what i thought was keen observation was merely seeing!
Sherlock Holmes had it right when he told Watson, ‘You see, but do not observe.’ Practice the art of observing that which is for all to see, but few observe it. To sharpen your sense of observation, learn to:
Slow down.
Refrain from multitasking.
Observe everyday things with a fresh pair of eyes.
Be mindful about what you are doing. This will help you be present in the moment.
These simple strategies will help set your mind free to form associations and be creative.

Enabler 3: No Time 
Most people’s daily routine keeps them busy. This stifles creativity.
Creative people, like Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, overcome this issue by committing a part of their time to ‘no time’. For Tim Cook, it is 4am, when he gets up. He says that the early morning is free of distractions and it is his ‘no time’ – the quiet moment in which a person can isolate themselves from the noise and distractions of the world. During this time, they can take a walk or spend some quiet time on their own. These moments relax them and are ripe for creative thoughts to take birth.

Enabler 4: Positive Environment
A positive and nurturing environment helps us think more clearly and more creatively. In this environment our brain accesses learning, wisdom and experience, and can combine them in new and unexpected ways. It results in free-flowing creativity.
Negative environments and thoughts derail our normal brain functioning. In extreme cases, our brain shuts down. In such environments, we seek information that will help us survive. This sounds the death knell for creativity.

Enabler 5: Broaden Your Experience
‘Bombard your mind with new experiences which are completely outside of your chosen field.’ You can do this by: Seeking out ‘new’ people, places, experiences, increasing the diversity of your acquaintances. In their presence you are exposed to different viewpoints and perspectives cultivating varied interests.

Enabler 6: Modest Constraint
Elon Musk faced a constraint. If he sold Tesla electric Vehicle (eV) through a traditional multi-car dealership network, then it would receive step-motherly treatment. If he decided to set up a dealership network from the grassroots up, it would require humongous capital and would also prove to be time-consuming.
Hemmed in by these constraints, he came up with a ‘creative’ solution to sell Tesla online, i.e., directly to customers, and support it with flagship stores akin to Apple Store. The flagship stores would be staffed with company employees with the aim of educating potential buyers about owning eVs and allaying their fears. This creative solution also ensured that the malice of price fluctuation caused due to various car dealers offering varying discounts was eliminated.
Constraint enhances creativity. It forces us to think in ways we may skip in prosperous times. But there is a caveat: constraint should adhere to the Goldilocks’ Principle, which is that too much constraint will choke creativity and too little will give it free reign. When it is just right, it spurs creativity. If the constraint is self-imposed, then it spurs even greater creativity. In the 2000s, the Audi racing team desired to win Le Mans under a self-imposed constraint: it could not go faster than its competitors.
Working with this self-imposed constraint, it developed diesel-powered cars, which required fewer fuel stops than gasoline-powered cars. The result: Audi went on to win Le Mans three years in succession.

Enabler 7: Freedom to Experiment and Fail
New ideas are born through experimentation. Experimentation by nature is prone to failure. Permit yourself to experiment and fail. But learn from each failure. In fact, you should double the number of experiments that you do in a year. in this way, you will double your inventiveness, says Jeff Bezos. Apart from learning from your own failures, learn from other people’s failures as well. After all, you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.

Enabler 8: Healthy Body
Focus on getting sufficient sleep, nutrition and exercise. Sleep offers the body and brain time to restore and recover. Regular exercise reduces anxiety and improves quality of sleep nutrition leads to a healthy body and a healthy mind. These three are the basics for brain functioning and they ignite our creative side.