Innovation — What, Why and How?
Authors: Vijay Challa (https://medium.com/@digitalchalla) & Brian Kowalczyk (https://medium.com/@kowalcbt)
“Even the most rigid person has frontal lobe that allows them to change their mind, one of the coolest yet frightening things about humans is that you can change their life by telling them a sentence”, says Anders Sandberg.
Let us find out together if I can change yours, by telling you a sentence or two about Innovation.
In recent years the most talked about process that I have come across and is synonymously identified with progress is Innovation. Every organization is chasing this elusive capability in their respective domains and sometimes across various domains, most of the time to stay relevant and sometimes to gain edge over competition.
So, what is this Innovation everyone talking about, but only a few seem to be getting good at in a sustainable way?
Let me start by telling you a small but out of this worldly story.
The story of conservative aliens
Here are the pictures of a couple of conservative aliens [1] that I was able to capture. As they put an extremely high value over privacy, they allow the capturing of the outline of their shape and when asked for name, they reveal both of their names (Bouba, Kiki).
Now let us try to match their picture with a name, take 5 seconds.
Well, here is the result that most of you might have come up with, the alien on the left side with sharp edges is Kiki and the one on the right side with curvy shape is Bouba. Now how did we do that? We have never seen them before and heard their names for the first time, but still we are able to match them despite any particular effort. [2]
It looks like a silly illusion, but these photons in your eye are doing this shape, and hair cells in your ear are exciting the auditory pattern, but the brain is able to extract the common denominator. It’s a primitive form of abstraction, and we now know this happens in the fusiform gyrus of the brain, because when that’s damaged, you lose the ability to engage in Bouba Kiki, but they also lose the ability to engage in metaphor which involves abstract thought is fundamental to innovation and creativity.
What is Innovation?
While talking to my team members, and colleagues around the organization I often get a wide range of understanding about what innovation actually means. For the sake of setting up a more structured expectation let us look at the definition of innovation.
Definition:
Make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas or products.
As you can see from how innovation is defined, it is not about pulling things of thin air like a magician, but trying to form a novel connection between existing concepts. In hindsight it can also be considered as a discovery of connections subconsciously.
Who can Innovate?
From the definition it seems pretty straightforward, so can anyone innovate? To put it simply, yes. But to get into finer details, let us look at the two components that are involved in the process.
- Brain: Is the physical component involved in the process, and each and every one of us are born with and carry with us throughout life, the neurophysiological apparatus of innovation in the brain. Though the influential factor being genetic predisposition, you can see from our bouba-kiki experiment that all of us have this ability at a fundamental level.
- Mind: Like any other cognitive process involving cerebellum and working memory this apparatus is educable. This, I believe to be the dominant factor in the process of Innovation, and almost all of us are capable of getting better at Innovation either by implicit experience or by explicit education.
It is extremely hard to dismiss as a coincidence that Einstein was working as a patent clerk and perusing over the ideas related to synchronizing the clocks at train stations, right before coming up with extraordinary concepts tied to time, space and establishing intricate connections between them.
So yes, I believe that everyone can innovate, and to prove my point unfortunately I have to rely on innovation’s negative counterpart, more commonly known as stereotypes.
What are stereotypes?
These are the psychological assertions we rely upon often relating to people, things, oneself and everything else. Though exhibited universally, often counterproductive in a more globalized world, where multiple sources and wide variety of information is readily available about pretty much everything, relying on such stereotypical assertions are looked down upon and rightly so.
But it is in our interest to explore further about the nature of stereotypes, so let us examine more closely the three main characteristics of stereotypes [3][6]
- Stereotypes are guides to explanation.
- Schematic Organization: Is an efficient way of moving quickly from analysis to action by grouping concepts together in order to find structure in the environment surrounding it.
- Stereotypes are energy-saving devices.
- While these schemata were at one point important for basic survival, they inhibit one’s ability to think broadly and creatively in the modern world.
- Stereotypes are shared group beliefs.
- unwillingness to consider new ideas, originates in the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity, which it often seeks to blindly eliminate rather than explore.
It seems too technical right? don’t worry. Have you heard the story of two angels, and a lion?
The story of two angels, and a lion
Once upon a time there lived two angels, for our convenience named “Bouba” and “Kiki”, in the most pleasant parts of heaven. As there was no need for any violence/ suffering or shortage of food, all animals are so friendly that Bouba and Kiki had pet lions to keep them company.
One day the angels came to visit earth and land in a jungle, and while exploring they came across a lion (at this point based on all of their previous experiences, their brains formed a stereotype saying lions are benign). While they are trying to be playful, the lion jumps on Bouba and you know what happens after that. Kiki watching Bouba devoured by not so playful lion, now connects the concept of danger with lion, extending the pre-existing stereo type to say that not all lions are benign and forms a new stereotype inline with “lions can be dangerous”.
As angels being angels, Bouba gets reincarnated (with newly created stereotype lions can be dangerous). Next time when Bouba because of first-hand experience and Kiki from observing Bouba, on encountering a lion the first pattern their brain retrieves is “lion can be dangerous” so in lieu of priority for survival, they would further evaluate the encounter by taking the location into consideration.
So, our brains are continuously trying to make sense of what we encounter, and explain to us the relevance for survival in the most efficient way possible. Though we now live in a much safer world, we carry with us the persistent mechanisms for constructing, compressing and storing experiences that can be retrieved at a later point in time as quickly as possible.
Human brain is like a parallel processing machine, and tries to retrieve the information in parallel. Most powerful connections/ stereotypes are one of the first ones retrieved, so instead of affirming first encountered connections and keep thinking, you will be able to go beyond well-known connections and explore unrelated and novel connections about the experience.
No matter what the information or experience you expose yourself to, your brain tries to find a relevant match by dipping into existing patterns, which for efficiency sake are stored in abstract form and when retrieved has the tendency to form novel connections (which is nothing but Innovation). In a nutshell, as you keep exposing yourself to more and more diverse experiences and information, your brain in its eagerness to help you survive will try to make connections between those experiences and come with very interesting and novel connections that manifests in multiple forms like gut feelings, epiphanies, intuition e.t.c., which are nothing but symptoms of Innovation.
How many people does it take to fix the Innovation bulb?
Usually when organizations encounter such problems, the go to solution is to hire few smart people and expect them to transform the landscape. Would this really work? Unfortunately the evidence does not support this position. To put it in a sentence “progress and innovation may depend less on lone thinkers with enormous IQs than on diverse people working together and capitalizing on their individuality”[4].
Every organization definitely needs smart people, they can provide direction, impetus, strategy and support, but it takes the diverse set of teams working together for sustainable and effective transformation.
So, when it comes to innovation the more the merrier.
How difficult is to motivate?
From whatever we have discussed so far, the process to become more Innovative seems to be simple and fun, only challenge being the need to motivate enough people to go about and do it. What is the big deal, we announce a challenge and with it a huge reward, that should do it right? That should motivate people enough to start getting more Innovative.
As effective, scalable and rewarding the approach might sound, unfortunately it does not always work, for all the tasks and especially for the motivating people for pursuing cognitive tasks like Innovation.
“As long as the task involved only mechanical skill, bonuses worked as they expected: the higher the pay, the better the performance. But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, A larger reward led to poorer performance.” [5]
[5] In order for us to motivate and sustain the drive, we have to rely on something more fundamental and innate to us human beings. Self-determination theory states that we have three innate psychological needs — competence, autonomy, and relatedness. When those needs are satisfied we are motivated, productive and happy. [5] Let us look each of them in more detail
- Autonomy — Hire good people and leave them alone. Encouraging autonomy does not mean discouraging accountability. New approach presumes that people want to be accountable — and that making sure they have control over their task, their time, their technique, and their team is a pathway to that destination.
- Mastery — While complying can be an effective strategy for physical survival, it’s a lousy one for personal fulfillment. In autotelic experience the goal is self-fulfilling; the activity is its own reward.
- Purpose — Evolution has had a hand in selecting people who had a sense of doing something beyond themselves. As an emotional catalyst, wealth maximization lacks the power to fully mobilize human energies.
[5] The science shows that the secret to high performance isn’t our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to live a life of purpose.
All is well, how do I know if I am getting better at Innovation?
Enough talk, now let us dive into more practical stuff. Now assuming that all we have discussed above is right, how do we go about doing it in a daily/ sustainable way? Well there is an easy way and not-so-easy way.
Not-so-easy way: It has been proven that participating in cognitive training exercises for example SMART (Strategy Memory Advanced Reasoning Training), would most certainly help getting better at cognitive tasks. Like any other new year resolutions, these exercises have the tendency to fall apart, if not built upon the three pillars we discussed above.
More-easy-way: Well, there is a super easy but less intensive and more fun way to go about, here it comes. Try to include diversity in everything you do as part of your daily routine, not only you will have a rich and more fulfilling experience of life but also it makes you better at Innovating and a more creative person. For example, if you like watching movies, mix them up from different genres, themes, creators. If you like listening to music, the same thing adds music from different instruments, artists, genres. Try different dresses, shoes, glasses, cuisines, art, cars, shades, colors, hobbies, anything and everything, including more variety.
From our Bouba, Kiki experiment in the beginning we know that no matter how information reaches that brain whether it be seeing, listening, touching, feeling or any other thing, it would try to make connections and gives your ability to perceive more and more of them. So, after storing all this information in abstract form, you look at a problem that you want to solve, your brain would present with unique connections that you might have never thought of and viola you are innovating!
Enough said, prove it?
Formally: MIM (Multiple Interpretations Measure) The Multiple Interpretation Measure test measures an individual’s ability to generate multiple interpretations of the expository test. Participants are asked to construct as many high-level interpretations as possible that can be drawn from the expository texts but which are not explicitly stated.
Not-so-formally:
- Step-1: Pick any object/ place or even a thought, and start writing as many things as you can think of related to it, once you feel you have come up with as much as you can, safely tuck it away for future comparison.
- Step-2: Now start living a rich life with as described previously, or engage in cognitive training exercises for a period of time to your satisfaction.
- Step-3: Repeat Step-1, pick the same object and start writing as much as you can think, if you are able to write more you are on the right path, if you wrote the same number of interpretations, you need to work more. On the other hand, if you came up with less, you might be having a bad day or not feeling well, try it at a different time, day or place.
This, That or Something else?
The most powerful you will ever form in your mind, is not about somebody, some place or something, to your surprise it will be about yourself. Right from the time you are born, or may be from well before that, you are continuously forming, breaking and reforming stereotypes about yourself, like you are this, that or something else, you can do this, that or something else, you can think about this, that or something else. Once you reach a certain age or stage in your life, the strength of this stereotype will be so re-affirming that you might feel more comfortable living with it.
As you learn to adapt your minds perspective you will grow as a person and enhance your ability to be more innovative. The ability to adapt and look at things in a new perspective are critical capabilities that are fundamental to the minds unique ability to create innovative ideas based on the places and objects around it. Once you stop listening to this comfortable voice, about the limitations and by exploring life’s riches you will broaden the definition of yourself incrementally or exponentially, thereby living a life filled with an abundance of alternate versions of yourself!
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect
- https://www.ted.com/talks/vs_ramachandran_3_clues_to_understanding_your_brain/transcript?language=en
- https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam033/2002073438.pdf
- https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691138541/the-difference
- https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805
- https://www.amazon.com/Polymath-Unlocking-Power-Human-Versatility/dp/1119508487
- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00314/full
- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/creating-better-innovation-measurement-practices/
- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23378a31d9.pdf
- https://www.bcg.com/publications/2019/most-innovative-companies-innovation.aspx
- https://www.bcg.com/publications/2019/most-innovative-companies-collaborative-platforms-ecosystems-changing-nnovation.aspx
- https://www.bcg.com/publications/collections/most-innovative-companies-2019-artificial-intelligence-platforms-ecosystems.aspx
- https://www.robertjsternberg.com/investment-theory-of-creativity
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780080441986/the-international-handbook-on-innovation?via=ihub=