In 1951 Toyota launched their Creative Idea Suggestion System and it is still going strong. Toyota receives one million ideas per year from its employees and at one point, Toyota received more than three million ideas from employees in one year. 

This level of involvement is not achieved by using a suggestion box. It is achieved by engaging the minds of employees and tapping into their unlimited pool of ideas and creativity. Letting this resource go untapped is like sitting on top of a gold mine and feeling poor.

So, how does Toyota do it?

Necessity might be the mother of invention, but our brain is the father of innovation. Through structured thinking, we can turbocharge our ability to innovate.

Barbara Frederickson’s research has shown us that positive emotions enable us to broaden our perspective and see more options to consider.  Alternatively, our brains respond to negative emotions by limiting the options we consider.

For example, if you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed with a long to-do list, you might find it hard to take just one small action to get started.

The human brain is the defining aspect of our humanity, it separates us from every other life form. The gift of thought unites us. We can begin thinking about our own thinking by the time we are nine years old.

Cognitive scientists at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas have created a brain training program to improve our cognitive capabilities. The program focuses on the executive, higher order thinking skills including integrated reasoning, innovation and strategic attention.