It is very important to learn new skills regularly. Doing so will actually make you more creative. This is one of the reasons why, when businesses install enterprise innovation software, it instantly becomes popular, only to then taper off a little. When there is something new, people get excited about it. Not because of curiosity or novelty, but because it makes their brains think. You need to harness this excitement and find a way to leave it in place, so that the innovation software continues to be of benefit. It is a known fact that, the more skills and knowledge we acquire, the more diverse we become. And the more diverse we become, the more creativity ensues as well.
The Science
A study completed by the University of Chicago looked at how people could best retain new pieces of information and knowledge. They wanted to make sure, therefore, that people didn’t just learn new things, but retained them and applied them as well. What they found was that, if someone is to truly retain a piece of knowledge, perhaps even permanently, they should sleep on it. In their study, they found that people would perform far better if they had a night sleep between learning something and applying their newfound knowledge, than those who had to apply it straight away. We all knew that sleep was important for various biological processes, but this was something new.
Music Is Important as Well
There was another key piece of information that turned out to be very important. We now know that people get excited when they learn something new, and that they are better able to retain that information if they have a good night’s sleep. So much so, in fact, that it is now recommended to not agree on taking any type of action, not even towards a key piece of information, until everybody has slept on it. However, a different study looked at the potential impact that music could have on these results, and their findings were pretty interesting as well. This was a study conducted by the University of Maryland, and it found that when someone listens to music that they personally enjoy, they increase overall blood flow and circulation. This means the body and the heart becomes healthier. Yet, should the music be considered stressful or not as nice, blood flow actually reduces. Hence, do provide people the opportunity to listen to music that they like themselves. In fact, many businesses now suggest people should bring iPods or other music tools with them to work. One piece of research demonstrated that, when people listen to music, their endurance increases by as much as 15%, compared to people who didn’t listen to music at all. Similarly, children who have music lessons score far better on memory and intelligence test.
What this means is that, if you want to get the most out of your innovation efforts, you need two key things: a good night sleep, and some excellent tunes!