We all know that “creativity” is an
important trait, and it holds a place of honor for our cultural respect for
genius inventors and artistic savants alike.
But for the business world, creativity, innovation, and the associated
ability of imagination are most often leveraged for incremental improvements of
existing products and processes, with occasional larger leaps into new
technologies.
All that is well and good, but what is innovation and invention, and what drives it? Why doesn’t it routinely manifest everywhere and every day? Typically innovation is modest in scope, and reflects small improvements in efficiency, capacity, performance, or any other of a myriad of valuable product or process traits. Often these can be viewed as simple hill-climbing optimizations, not major leaps, that serve to make things work just a little better. Sometimes innovations are segmented into tiers, such as types 1 to 4, where 1 is a minor improvement for an existing product for existing markets, and 4 is at the radical side of the spectrum reflecting new technologies used in new products for novel markets.
All that is well and good, but what is innovation and invention, and what drives it? Why doesn’t it routinely manifest everywhere and every day? Typically innovation is modest in scope, and reflects small improvements in efficiency, capacity, performance, or any other of a myriad of valuable product or process traits. Often these can be viewed as simple hill-climbing optimizations, not major leaps, that serve to make things work just a little better. Sometimes innovations are segmented into tiers, such as types 1 to 4, where 1 is a minor improvement for an existing product for existing markets, and 4 is at the radical side of the spectrum reflecting new technologies used in new products for novel markets.
Inventions are on the more
significant side of the innovation scale, and reflect new ways of doing things,
either using new technology or recombining technologies used in unrelated
markets or products in some novel combination to address new needs.
For any form of innovation, the new
part tends to rely heavily on past work, either for existing solutions in the
case of Type 1 or 2, or for unrelated markets for Type 3 or 4. Even brand new inventions reflect building
upon and remixing of earlier technology or inventions, and there is very little
that is truly new under the sun.
So where does creativity come from? Well, it often springs from creative tension – a situation that demands a solution. “Necessity is the mother of invention” says the old truism, and it’s still true – creative ideas come because they are needed, in a situation where the work to communicate, dialog, ideate, and create becomes worthwhile.
Where does creative tension come from? We said from necessity – problems – in the last paragraph, but that is a somewhat limited view. Creative tension often reflects a dichotomy between our mental model of current reality and a model of how we wish it were – the delta between current and target reality.
This isn’t a fundamental insight, but at least for me it is a perspective I didn’t have before. We all have heard, at some point, “for want of vision, the people perish”. If we want to create something new, either individually, as a team, or as a company, a necessary and good first step is to establish a vision. A compelling vision thus is an important agreement point to reach if we want to make positive changes in the world, and at some point this monologue will shift to dialogue and hopefully we’ll do just that.
On the other side, the current condition, and accurate view of reality is important. “The truth will set you free” is another common quote, and this is the other anchor for constructive creative tension. It seems obvious that reality should be really obviously, but perspectives differ and often getting agreement on current reality is just as hard as forming a compelling vision.
So where does creativity come from? Well, it often springs from creative tension – a situation that demands a solution. “Necessity is the mother of invention” says the old truism, and it’s still true – creative ideas come because they are needed, in a situation where the work to communicate, dialog, ideate, and create becomes worthwhile.
Where does creative tension come from? We said from necessity – problems – in the last paragraph, but that is a somewhat limited view. Creative tension often reflects a dichotomy between our mental model of current reality and a model of how we wish it were – the delta between current and target reality.
This isn’t a fundamental insight, but at least for me it is a perspective I didn’t have before. We all have heard, at some point, “for want of vision, the people perish”. If we want to create something new, either individually, as a team, or as a company, a necessary and good first step is to establish a vision. A compelling vision thus is an important agreement point to reach if we want to make positive changes in the world, and at some point this monologue will shift to dialogue and hopefully we’ll do just that.
On the other side, the current condition, and accurate view of reality is important. “The truth will set you free” is another common quote, and this is the other anchor for constructive creative tension. It seems obvious that reality should be really obviously, but perspectives differ and often getting agreement on current reality is just as hard as forming a compelling vision.
I think I’ve got one more day of
basic terms and concepts to dig through, and then we’ll get into less
commonplace concepts.
Speaking of commonplace, there used be a tool of learning and introspection that people created to organize and compile their learning, termed a commonplace book. I wish I would have started such a book of my own 40 years ago, and I wish I had a digital one that followed my around now, making it easy for me to grab snippets of info and maintain a bibliography and reference list as I went.
Speaking of commonplace, there used be a tool of learning and introspection that people created to organize and compile their learning, termed a commonplace book. I wish I would have started such a book of my own 40 years ago, and I wish I had a digital one that followed my around now, making it easy for me to grab snippets of info and maintain a bibliography and reference list as I went.
Sources so far, at least a
reasonably complete of memorable books and a website or two that helped form
the basis for my musings.
The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
Little Bets – Peter Sims
Messy: The Power of Disorder – Tim
Hartford
Everything’s a Remix
Smartcuts – Shane Snow
Why Information Grows – Cesar Hidalgo
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