By Guest Contributor, Rebecca Cochran, Cochran Creative Group

I saw the new film, The Imitation Game a few days ago. Superbly acted, this historical thriller tells the story of how pioneering British analyst, Alan Turing and his MI6 team, cracked Nazi Germany’s naval ‘Enigma’ code, ultimately helping the allies win the Second World War.

Though set in the middle of the 20^th century, the film brought out many ideas and concepts that exemplify skills needed for innovation to occur today. For instance:

Noticing Patterns

Alan Turing, expertly played by Benedict Cumberbatch, was portrayed as having a knack for noticing patterns or connections among random things. One of the many flashback scenes showed a very young Turing seated at his family dinner table attempting to arrange, by pattern, the food on his plate. Should they be arranged by color? Or shape? By food type? Or some other pattern? It was…