Mind the Gap.

They say, "Necessity is the mother of invention." True.

But I believe that principle more apropos for times past. During the tectonic changes experienced in the deep history of great cultures and kingdoms in Europe, the Middle East, Africa & Asia - radical inventions like the wheel, the ship, medicine, windmills, dynamite, the aqueduct, all which drove an evolution in life itself - step changes - which closed the gaps in radical ways. But those romantic times (literally times of 'Rome') seem distant memories. We're no longer, in the main, inventing things. We're advancing stuff. We're filling gaps.  

Today's professional futurists; those who publish books and sit on industry panels theorizing the great Next this or that - if you catch them 2 or 3 glasses deep into a Pinot Noir flight - will confide to you that their jobs are pretty easy: you just look at what's happening now and then draw linear, exponential or logarithmic lines. And then you pick which line is most likely, drawing implications in the process. If you're wrong, by then the focus has shifted anyway so it doesn't really matter. Memories are short term. We've moved on to other trends. Other conferences. Other clients. But the futurist's buzzy confession contains a great kernel of truth. Innovation is a function of spotting trends and filling gaps. 

That's truly all it is.  

Innovation is finding the gaps within trends and filling them. The gaps between nations, industries, products, people... even pandemics.

Let's pick an industry to demonstrate the point. Aviation. 

First there were no planes. Then biplanes. Unmanned gliders at first. Then single engine ones with pilots. Then we militarized them. Then came dual engines, then turbines, then commercial air travel and very recently 'space tourism'. So on a practical level that means, commercial 'rocketships' traveling at 250K feet, standard airlines flying at 36K feet, small planes piloting at 10K, helicopters hovering at 6K, and, already in beta, Uber drones which cruise at 1,500 feet. So the futurist looks at the atmosphere - which in this calculus looks like the cross-section of a giant jawbreaker, or as the earth's crust does to a geologist - and s/he identifies the gaps that remain based on those already occupied and then simply proclaims aloud the logical progression: "Personal drones that fly at 500ft coming soon." Ta-da!

So what does this have to do with where we are today?  

Our present global crisis has driven this gap principle into frantic overdrive; with both salutary and transient results. Companies, brands, individuals mapping the gaps in the trends and using them as the principle for innovation to solve big problems, and others mapping those same gaps into products, services, or even perspectives that won't stand the test of the time. Among the former; garment makers repurposing textiles for surgical masks, Dyson, Branson and Musk retooling to manufacture complex ventilator systems, a spate of telehealth start-ups sprinting to solve, and booze distilleries of all kinds reformulating to churn out sanitizer. Among the latter; facial hair related marketing and investment (lots of quarantine beards apparently), new apps and plug-ins for exotic video conference backgrounds (because... ), and Elon Musk once more, this time for making rich guy out-of-touch references. (You're decidedly an over-achiever if you make it onto both lists). 

"Necessity is the mother of invention?" Sure. Once. But today it might be better stated: "Desire is the father of innovation." 

And yet we need to acknowledge that in many respects, at least historically, in non-pandemic times, this 'father of innovation' has sometimes been an absentee one. Begetting innovations based on a hunger for 'scalability', lust for 'non-linear' growth. His progeny seeded all over the globe to be raised without his care in various and sundry places; Palo Alto, NY, Silicon Beach, Tel Aviv, Mumbai. Many of his innovations incubated but never nurtured. An investment portfolio of illegitimate kids. 

Looking at things this way, you could make the case that we haven't really advanced all that much. Hopefully history doesn't repeat itself. 

I'm betting with the bulls. I think we have a good shot actually.

Because in times of great turmoil Americans have generally chosen to tap our super power: optimism. And this time too, can be one of great promise, a moment in history where our shared ideals kick in. (We still have those you know. Despite what MSNBC or Fox News might say.) Those ideals that make the hairs on the back of our necks stand up when we read a story of great valor, that make us swallow hard pushing back a lump which would otherwise well into tears of profound admiration at witnessing a deep personal sacrifice. These are the values we share. And they get stronger in adversity. That's what give us our edge; our obstacle-overcoming, building-from-scratching, under-dog-winning, never-say-nevering, do-good-for-the-sake-of-it-NESS. Those ideals.  

We have an opportunity to put our energy, creativity and will into this moment to catapult nascent ideas, thoughts, words, services and products into great things that build real value and change real lives. 

We have an opportunity to do the opposite too.  

Which will you choose?