Alistair Mowat
Position: Innovation Leader - Sustainability, Field: Horticulture, Organisation: ZESPRI International Limited.
Alistair Mowat
Key skills for innovation
Alistair thinks the following personal attributes are important for working in innovation:
Connecting disparate ideas.
Communication skills.
Interpersonal skills.
Meet an innovator: Alistair Mowat
Alistair Mowat, Innovation Leader – Sustainability at ZESPRI, discusses personal skills that he brings to the role and how these skills were fostered. He explains that different people approach problems in different ways, so a diverse range of skills can be important in innovation.
Background knowledge and experience
Innovative projects draw on a range of people with diverse knowledge and expertise. Each person involved contributes a unique knowledge and skill set, which is determined by their particular educational background and the range of experiences they are involved in through their work as well as their life outside of work.
It’s important to be able to communicate and relate to a range of people with different thinking styles to your own.
The background knowledge and experience that have contributed to Alistair’s unique knowledge and skill set for his current role as Innovation Leader at ZESPRI include:
project management
working as a research scientist
working as a research and development manager.
Encouraging innovation: Alistair Mowat
Providing opportunities for students to work together on group projects can help them appreciate that different people bring different skills and approaches to solving a problem. Alistair Mowat of ZESPRI discusses how these experiences can help students recognise and value their particular skills and those of others and better prepare them to contribute effectively in an innovative workplace.
A challenge for students
Have students identify opportunities available in their own school or local environment where they could learn to work together with a group of people with diverse skills. Discuss ways these experiences could be of benefit in their working lives.
This article is based on information current in 2013.
