Depending on the type of fish a fisherman is trying to catch, they use smaller fish, often minnows, as bait. Before getting to the real fishing, they have to first fish for the minnows. Luckily catching minnows is an easy process if you know where to lay down a minnow trap.

A torpedo minnow trap is typically designed to look like a barrel made from wire that allows water to flow freely in and out but the holes are small enough to trap the fish. On either end of the metal barrel cage, the wire is shaped into a funnel that leads into the barrel, with a small hole so the fish can swim in. Because of the funnel design, once the fish are in they swim to the outside walls of the barrel searching for a way out. They continue to swim around, as fish do, perhaps hoping they will find their way out.

Albert Einstein is famously credited with saying, “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Minnows would swim free if they interrupted their typical pattern. A different approach is needed to find a solution. If they changed their moves, it would be a lot more difficult to catch minnows.

Does your organisation ever feel like it’s in a minnow trap? Whilst organisations do fall into patterns and habits, unlike minnows, we always have the capacity to imagine and build differently – this is our capacity for innovation.

How can you use innovation mindsets to find your way out of the trap of your most complex challenge and move in the direction of growth?

According to the Accenture Pulse of Change 2024 Index report, “the rate of change affecting businesses [across technology, talent, economic, geopolitical, climate, and consumer & social factors] reached unprecedented levels in 2023, with a 183% increase over the past four years and a 33% rise in the last year alone.”

It’s clear that the world is changing and many leaders acknowledge the effects on and in their business. 97% of CEOs surveyed in the PwC’s Global CEO survey reported they are taking steps to change their business models in response to major trends and changes, but 45% aren’t sure of their company’s long-term viability. There is also a well documented competency gap among leaders – in 2010, IBM’s Global CEO study revealed a 30% gap between expected complexity and leaders’ confidence in managing it. Their 2024 study, this feeling of lacking expertise and confidence has only been compounded by the rapid advances in technology, and particularly AI.

That’s the minnow trap: leading organisations with a business-as-usual mindset in a changing world that demands more. Doing what you’ve always done, staying trapped in the same strategies and ways of working, and eventually realising your pond is drying up or that you are no longer the biggest fish.

In a world that’s ever-changing and increasingly complex, we need fresh thinking and new approaches to navigate our challenges. It’s time to embrace an innovation mindset as a way of being. Our aptitude and appetite for innovation is influenced by our attitudes, experiences and beliefs – but it is not set in stone. An innovation mindset can be cultivated with the right practices, tools, and actively seeking new ways of approaching the world at large.

Everything we do now is creating the future, but what future do you want? As we look ahead, we know that we can’t rely on what got us here to get us there. If you want a different outcome, it’s time to cultivate innovation from the inside, out. That is why we are committed to making innovation practical, and possible so that you can bring about the necessary transformation and impact.

Schedule a discovery consultation with our team to learn how a partnership with us can help you, your team or your organisation meet – and navigate – the moment, boldly.

WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF INNOVATION?

InkDot’s innovation definition is this: a dynamic, non-linear and empathy-driven process and approach to staying relevant in a fast-changing, complex world.

Innovation processes enable organisations to gain a deep understanding of the needs of the people they serve (customers, clients, employees, communities), and to generate ideas that respond directly to those needs. It allows us to develop unexpected, viable solutions that create value.

Innovation is also a mindset. It is a way of approaching the world, and the posture with which we move through it. This is why innovation is like a muscle that can be uncovered, worked, strengthened, and developed.

Let’s break down this definition further:

Innovation always starts with a deep, empathetic understanding of a specific need, followed by the optimistic quest for solutions that respond accordingly. Think back to our minnow trap example. In that situation, the need is to find freedom from the trap.

Innovation is also a result – a tangible solution, product, service, experience, artefact, etc. – that works. It is adopted or implemented, it is somehow unexpected, and it creates or adds new value. In the case of the minnow, the quest is to find the breakthrough that gets it out the trap (the small hole in an unusual place, swimming in a new pattern).

At InkDot, we also believe that true innovation is contextual. Innovations emerge from and respond to a context; they influence and are influenced by context. Without taking a systemic view of both the challenges we face and the solutions we bring, we often recreate or amplify unintended or harmful consequences. This type of innovation happens through the intentional pursuit of alternative futures, and impactful responses to the critical global and local challenges we face. In an ever-changing, increasingly complex world, strengthening our innovation mindset is the only way to stay relevant.

What is an innovative mindset?

A mindset shapes how you see the world, how you are in the world, and how you show up. It’s your outlook and is driven by your culture, experiences, and values. A mindset is the worldview through which you operate in the world. So an innovative mindset meaning a worldview where innovation is at the centre. Where everything you do, say, believe, enact, and feel is oriented towards “making new”, renewing, refreshing, finding alternatives, and transforming the “now” into the “future”.

The World Economic Forum published a list of top job skills needed for 2025, and innovation is at the top of the list. The other skills on the list are also all relevant to an innovation mindset: analytical thinking, complex problem solving, creativity. But this list is in some ways obvious… of course those are skills that we all want to cultivate! No one says “no, I don’t want to be innovative and creative!” Whilst these skills are important, honing a way to truly help us navigate complexity requires a mindset shift. It’s more than just learning new skills and increasing your technical knowledge (which will quickly become outdated). It’s about how you apply those skills, how they guide your approach in work and in life, and how you combine them to meet the specific challenges you face in your context. That’s why we say that an innovation mindset in business (and beyond) is a way of being.

Knowing what this looks like in reality can be hard to conceptualise. At InkDot, our innovation mindset shines through our core values:

Empathy & Care | Building trusting relationships isn’t just important to us, we consider it the core of our work. We do it through openness, deep listening and respectful attention and support – these characteristics bundled together create our deeply empathetic and caring team.

Integrity | At InkDot, our commitment to lifelong learning isn’t just something we say, but a practice. We embody critical thinking and curiosity, and combine it with evidence and expertise. With this foundation we can be confident in the integrity of our work, and show up with honesty and transparency.

Multi-Multi-Multi | Our team is multicultural, multilingual, multidisciplinary, multi-tooled, multi-thinking, multi-everything. We bring our differences of experience, ways of being, skills and perspectives to light in all we do. We know that possibilities lie in the multitudes.

Anti business-as-usual / “Inquietos” | The same old routines and habits won’t lead us to our full potential. Big picture possibilities and a fed-upness with the status quo is part of what fuels us. Instead of shying away from complexity, we lean in. Breaking into new territory to a seemingly unreachable goal is what we live and breathe.

The specific combinations of skills, tools and practices necessary for an innovation mindset are dependent on your context: the type of business you work in, the market and the customers (and their needs) that you serve, the types of challenges you see around you. The mindset you cultivate should be tailored accordingly, just as our team has done for InkDot’s core values and as we do with our clients.

How to build an innovation mindset?

If you would like to strengthen your innovation mindset, the good news is that you can build it just like building muscles in your body. It takes focus, discipline, and practice, which isn’t always easy, but is achievable with the right support.

Wondering how to develop an innovative mindset?

The team at InkDot created an “Inno-Gym” for ABSA Bank in Mozambique. “Inno-Gym” was a self-paced e-learning course that served as a space for all ABSA employees to build “innovation muscles” through learning tools, techniques, and dedicated practice.

Inno-gym focused on a set of unique innovation mindsets, tailored to the specific reality of the bank and co-created with the bank’s leadership team. In this four module course, employees practised these simple mindsets crucial for innovation:

Have an Open Mind. Everything starts with being open to seeing things differently, looking at the world with fresh eyes, and seeking out fresh perspectives. This course put concrete tools around the overused, abstract concept of “thinking out of the box.”

Get some tools on how to develop this muscle →
Be empathetic. Innovation is driven by empathy – a deep understanding of the needs of the end-user, the people for which you are innovating. Without empathy, you generate ideas, but true innovation requires adoption by those you serve. This is only possible when you begin with empathy.

Get some tools on how to develop this muscle →
Show courage. Innovation requires that you do things differently than how you’ve done them before. Like all things new, stepping out of your comfort zone can be scary, so requires courage and commitment to see changes become a reality.

Get some tools on how to develop this muscle →
Fail fast, learn, and advance. Doing what hasn’t been tried before also means that success is not guaranteed – what is guaranteed is learning. With this mindset, failure isn’t a bad thing. Instead, it’s an inevitable part of the process. By failing, we learn what works. If we don’t let failures stop us in our tracks, we begin to see the possibilities of where we can go.

Get some tools on how to develop this muscle →

Is your organisation searching for a way to bring innovation to life? An Inno-Gym may be the solution. Schedule a discovery consultation with our team to learn how we can help you build an innovation mindset across your teams.

What are the essentials of an innovation mindset?

Innovation is the buzz word on everyone’s mind at the moment, but what does it really mean? How can we take on a more effective role as champions of innovation in our teams, companies, and communities?

Some characteristics of an innovative mindset include:

Encouraging and incentivizing wild ideas (and lots of them!)
Building on the ideas of others.
Bringing ideas to life by being visual – drawing, prototyping, acting them out.
Taking care of the well-being of the group, together.
Withholding judgement.
Listening with attention, speaking with intention.
Failing early. Failing often. Failing forward.
Staying focused on your objective, but having fun!

Let’s Face Your Complex Problem Together

At InkDot, we believe innovation is for everyone. Too often, solutions fail because we haven’t reached a contextual and empathy-driven understanding of the problems we are trying to address or because we don’t involve the people that will be most impacted by the innovations. At InkDot, we practice anti-business-as-usual, and we aren’t afraid to swim into the minnow trap or fishman’s net alongside you. We ground ourselves in your current reality, while being guided by the highest possibilities for your future.

Schedule a discovery consultation with us to uncover the possibilities!

Get in touch.

Tired of seeing or using old methods that only seem to add to current challenges, instead of helping you to adapt to and shape the world around you? Looking for a strategic innovation partner who can help you break out of business as usual?

Get in touch to book a discovery call with one of our innovation specialists.

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