如今的公司，需要面對更嚴重的不確定性和更高的復雜性。在這種變幻無常的形勢下，員工為了保住飯碗不得不謹慎行事，這并不奇怪。（畢竟，誰會愿意“破壞現狀”或者因為項目失敗而受到指責呢？）這種反應性行為在邏輯上是可以理解的，但它也為創新帶來了巨大的障礙。

創新源自一種激情或一個問題。激情意味著你有創新的動力，因為你對某件事非常關心。例如，理查德?布蘭森在小時候觀看了尼爾?阿姆斯特朗登月的畫面，由此對太空產生了濃厚的興趣。他意識到，他也想像阿姆斯特朗那樣登上月球。數十年來，他一直在提問題，記錄想法，與不同的人交流，努力將自己的激情變成現實。正是因為這樣一個發自內心的長期承諾，才有那么多人追隨他，共同創立維珍銀河，這種激情由此轉變為一門實實在在的企業。

但如今就業市場不景氣，許多人更擔心失去工作，而不是考慮通過積極的改變創造不同，在這樣的形勢下，要培養對某件事的激情，說起來容易做起來難。你不妨嘗試以下這三種方法；

1、培養同理心

與直覺恰恰相反，克服恐懼的方法之一是跳出自身的需要。以自我為中心、只會紙上談兵的激情，幾乎不可能產生改變世界的見解。相反，你熱愛的事情通常要專注于對他人產生積極的影響。瞬間激發積極性最快的方式之一，是與一種產品或服務的最終用戶建立直接的、私人的聯系，以更好地了解他們的需求。

2、尋找現有的問題

創新的另一個重要起點，是多關注現存的問題。以薩爾曼?可汗為例。2004年，當時還是一名對沖基金分析師的可汗，得知他在路易斯安那州的堂弟在數學方面遇到了困難。他利用雅虎的涂鴉記事本Doodle為堂弟進行輔導，并從中發現了解決這一問題的機遇。很快，其他家庭成員和朋友對類似課程的需求，激勵他在2006年將教程搬到了YouTube。如今，作為非盈利組織可汗學院的創始人，可汗已經在YouTube上發布了超過2000部教程，每天來自全世界的瀏覽量接近10萬次?？珊箤W院的宗旨是為全世界所有人提供免費的世界級教育。

好消息是任何人都會遇到問題——可能是職業或個人問題。只要你對這些問題足夠關心，你就可以產生解決這些問題的激情。

不論是受到激情還是問題的激勵，在開始創新之前，一定要確保自己愿意全身心投入到自己的想法當中。關鍵是要有將想法變成現實的毅力——雖然領導者通常要從初步計劃中選出關鍵的“中心點”，將抽象的想法變成強大的現實。但需要注意的是，有的領導者最開始有非常了不起的想法，他們認為自己熱衷于某一個改革方案，后來卻發現由于錯誤的原因，偏離了最初的想法。例如，由于內部不斷變化的政治動態，導致許多想法被很快終止。

3、列出清單

你能做些什么，才能找到自己的激情或確定你真正關心的問題？列出你目前面臨的尚未找到答案的主要挑戰。與你的最終用戶或客戶最為息息相關的挑戰有哪些？解決哪些問題可以讓你的公司在未來發生最大的改變？哪些問題可以引發積極的（消極的）情緒？確定最根本的問題，需要你做出一個具體的選擇，即如何采用另一種方式利用你的時間。所以，一定要謹慎選擇，確保你的付出是值得的。

確定了真正關注的事情，并愿意為之做些什么，你便來到了創新之旅的完美起點。只要你有足夠的精力，保持同理心，你便可以走出舒適區，開始創造不同。（財富中文網）

本文作者哈爾?葛瑞格森為麻省理工學院領導力中心常務主任，并擔任麻省理工學院斯隆管理學院領導力與創新高級講師。他著有《創新者的基因：培養破壞性創新的五種技能》（The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators）一書。

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

審校：任文科

Organizations are dealing with higher levels of uncertainty and deeper complexity than we’ve ever seen before. Not surprisingly, this changeable landscape is causing employees to act cautiously in order to keep their jobs. (After all, who wants to “rock the boat” or be blamed for a failed project?) While this reactive behavior makes logical sense, it’s also creating a major roadblock on the journey to innovation.

Innovation begins with either a passion or a problem. Passion means you’re motivated to innovate because you care deeply about something. For example, thanks to watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon as a child, Richard Branson became very interested in space and realized that he wanted to go there like Armstrong did. For decades, he asked questions, kept notebooks of ideas, talked to different people and worked hard to figure out a way for his passion to become a reality. With a long-term commitment borne by the head and heart, it’s no wonder that the stars lined up for Branson to start Virgin Galactic, transforming his passionate idea into a tangible business.

However, becoming that passionate about something is easier said than done in a world where employment is so tenuous and many of us are more motivated by the fear of losing our jobs than by making a difference through positive change. Here are three ways to do this:

Empathize with others

Counter-intuitively, one way to overcome that fear is to look outside of your own needs. Passions that lead to world-changing insights are rarely self-centered, navel-gazing activities. Instead they often focus on trying to make a positive impact for someone else. One of the fastest ways to spark instant motivation is to set up direct, personal contact with end-users of a product or service to better understand their needs.

Search for existing problems

The other significant starting point for innovation is paying more careful attention to an existing problem. Consider Salman Khan. In 2004, Khan, then a hedge fund analyst, heard his cousin in Louisiana was struggling with mathematics. He saw an opportunity to solve this problem by tutoring his cousin over the Internet using Yahoo!’s Doodle notepad. Soon, the demand from other family members and friends for similar lessons motivated him to move his tutorials to YouTube in 2006. Today, as the founder of the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere, Khan has more than 2,000 tutorials on YouTube, which are viewed around the world nearly 100,000 times a day.

The good news is that everyone has problems – whether professional or personal. Either way, if we care enough about the problem, we may become passionate about solving it.

Whether you are motivated by passion or a problem, make sure you are willing to fully invest in the idea before you begin your innovation journey. Deep persistence to making an idea happen is key – even though leaders must often make critical “pivots” from initial plans to transform abstract ideas into powerful realities. Beware though that some leaders start out with great intentions, thinking they are passionate about a particular change initiative, but find themselves pulled away from the original idea into other directions – for all the wrong reasons. For example, some ideas get shut down fast by the ever spinning wheels of internal political dynamics.

Make a list

What can you do to find your passion or identify a problem that you care deeply about? Try making a list of the major challenges you currently face for which you don’t have an answer. Which of these is most deeply connected to your end users or clients? Which ones could make the biggest difference for the future of your company? Which ones spark any kind of emotion, either positive or negative? Deciding that a problem matters at a fundamental level requires a concrete choice about how you will use your time differently. So choose well to make sure it’s worth it.

When you uncover something that you care enough about to do something about it, then you’re at the perfect starting point for a powerful innovation journey. Once you get the energy and empathy juices flowing, you can get out of your comfort zone and start to make a difference.

Hal Gregersen is executive director of the MIT Leadership Center and a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is the author ofThe Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators.