Yesterday, I posed the question: “A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?”
I had a few people chime in with an answer but no one got it right the first time. The correct answer is that they weren’t twins but were part of a set of triplets.
Now of course, in life there is no one right answer and I had one very agitated reader who was convinced that her answer was correct and in retrospect it was, so there were two right answers. Her answer: That they were adopted but happened to be born at the same time on the same day, in the same year. Thanks Mom, you’re right.
It was interesting to see how people tried to answer the riddle as it showed a little about how they innovate. Each of you have your own way of meeting creative challenges and each of you uses a slightly different style to solve problems.
- Visioners: Those who envision the ideal future. These people leap to a completely new way of doing something.
- Modifiers: People who refine and optimize what has come before. This is the process of incremental adaptation.
- Explorers: Individuals who discover new and novel possibilities. This is done by applying a solution for one thing to a radically different problem.
- Experimenters: To combine and test many unique combinations. These people try out multiple options.
Which type of innovator are you?