Innovation

 Innovation is one of the core drivers of a healthy economy, of a society even. It is the ability to identify and fulfill a need that has allowed humanity to achieve countless victories over adverse conditions. Most often associated with technology, innovation can also take place in other ways, such as procedural and organizational. Virtually any practical skill or endeavor can call for innovations of some kind, not only to continually gain on that ever-elusive perfection, but to offset the shifting demands of time. A perfectly innovated process in the past may well require new changes for the future, which would have not been effective in the past. All of this is to say, there is a good reason why encouraging innovation has been such a popular notion among American businesses in recent years.

 This week I reviewed a Ted Talk by Charles Leadbeater regarding the nature of innovation and creativity. Rethinking innovation was a major topic through the presentation. Viewing it less as a specialized practice for the those with the most experience, education or training, and instead as something anyone is capable of. In particular, through collaboration, untapped potential could be waiting to be utilized.

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    Necessity is the mother of invention, and that seems to ring true with the examples provided in the presentation. Mountain bikes were framed as an innovation not borne from one man, but by groups of bikers responding to a need. Since they had the incentive and the opportunity, they seized on it by making their own custom bikes, better able to traverse off-road. Corporations were blind to this need and lacked the insights into the customer's wishes to properly capitalize on this idea until it was already realized.

    An interesting observation made by Leadbeater is that invention and application are often disparate. The users of a new technology will often find uses for it that defy the creator's expectations. This principle flies in the face of our patent system, which requires the owner of a design to describe its intended use. In this way, innovations tend to be collaborative even when unintentional. There is little framework for inventing something of uncertain application. Yet, its the largest and most radical innovations that have the most uncertainty regarding their eventual use.

    How can these principles be applied? By encouraging the natural creative instinct in the workplace. Creativity shouldn't be forced, but platforms can be provided that facilitate its growth. Looking forward to new innovations, rather than being entrenched in what the historical data indicates, is difficult for a lot of companies. There is a sense of unknown with these kinds of organic, collaborative, innovations. Many risk-averse companies simply refuse to take a risk instead of taking actions validated by past successes.

    In applying this to my own organization, I could see fertile ground for such endeavors to thrive and grow. There are a lot of intelligent and creative people at Boeing that might take advantage of such an opportunity. Perhaps taking a page from Google's playbook, formally building time for work on and sharing of personal projects can ultimately become very profitable. When given some validation in such a visible way, some ideas can be given a chance that may have otherwise never seen the light of day.

    Another way to foster innovation and creativity in the workplace is to establish a workplace culture that values new ideas. This can be stifled unintentionally, and may require a concerted effort to truly embrace. Not every idea is going to be a good fit for the business, but rewarding employees for making an effort, and recognizing any merit they may have, just might provide enough encouragement for them to try again to bring something worthwhile.