Decrypting Discovery

When we learn of an innovation, often enough our reaction is “Wow, it's so obvious, why didn't I think of that?” and we get the “I could kick myself” sort of feeling and we begin our own search for the secrets of inventiveness.

With a little introspection, we realize that the main thing that makes some discoveries turn into commercial successes is their ability to solve real problems that folks face.

The business world needs innovations that will pay-off. In order to filter out everything noncommercial, and to funnel our discovery process towards finding stuff that can sell, we try to zero in on delineating and solving existing pain points. We observe processes with focus to see if we can't hit on some solutions for ourselves. We are selectively observant, seeking discoveries and innovations that solve real problems that folks face. Ideas come boiling out and that's how many of today's startups have sprung their share of innovations.

Seeing startups hit success, established industry becomes more responsive and more committed to processes favouring innovation. Increasingly, collaborative environments are replacing individual expertise based innovation systems.

Pinning down how innovation happens, that discovery process itself, has proved to be difficult, but it can be done! We can start by teaching our people how to break everyday processes down step by step, to do walk-throughs, with an eye on improving their ability to notice and focus, producing effective and acute observation (clue #1). In the process we should also generate data that can be studied for clues.

Observation on its own is a bit like noticing and then keeping lots of stuff in storage. The inventor is not just an excellent searcher, but also has the ability after noticing (and storing) to manipulate that stuff, rearranging and bringing together disparate bits of information, inferring connections, and reassembling them into something new. For the sake of simplicity, we'll dub this as imaginative lateral thinking (clue #2).

A man walked his dog through the woods and when they got home he noticed hard to remove plant burrs on his clothes and his dog's fur. Curious about the stubborn burrs, he put them under a microscope which revealed the tiny hooks on the burrs, and 10 years of work later it became VELCRO (title image). De Mestral was laughed at, but he persevered. Nowadays we talk of biomimesis (copying nature) and it's become something of a necessity to study the natural world for clues to useful inventions! At its broadest, anything and everything from nanotech to astronomy is a potential source of new inventions, and we even have rather unhelpful names for each of these fields of observation. Breadth of knowledge IS important, giving us our clue #3 – eclecticism. Commercially successful innovations are often found by those creative persons who pursue broad interests.

High profile inventors do have a bent for observation, and in addition there are large dollops of curiosity (clue #4). Does it seem obvious that curiosity is what drives observation? We find our inventors to be avid questioners, fascinated with the whys and hows, and willing to dig deep to find answers.

Another common element in successful discovery is the ability to break things up. Putting two and two together gets six, but only when the standard formula is jettisoned. Breaking old connections needs to precede connecting up in a whole new config. The jumble of bits and pieces can suddenly come together in new and unexpected configurations, this is the ingredient of disruption that goes before reassembly and we'll label this as clue #5.

To summarize, we do have some important clues, but I don't believe that we've got to the heart of discovering how discovery can always be made to happen. What we have in hand so far, are focussed observation, curiosity, eclecticism, imaginative lateral thinking, and shaking things up (disruption) to see what results. With a concentration on developing these skills, Innovation can be taught, and I believe it must!

To summarise, the creativity of Discovery-Invention-Innovation puts together at least these 5 components:

• Focussed Observation
• Curiosity
• Eclectic interests
• Imaginative Lateral thinking
• Shaking things up - disruption

Commonly though, many find it very hard work and seem to prefer extensions of the life hack. We're often asking “Is there a shortcut, a less painful way of getting to discovery?”

Let's jump ahead a bit. Okay, so you created something really innovative. If it is not to be one of the zillions of discoveries that just sink out of sight, then the inventor must put it together and put it to use. Here are a few of the main dangers you might face:

Risk 1 - That old conundrum of challenging the status quo. This is The Establishment! It's a big and very well oiled machine with few kinks, the technology is sound, branding is well established, and channels and pipelines are solidly in place. Into that deep end, you are readying yourself to dive. Competition is a great thing if it is allowed to flourish. When battling giants, getting yourself off to a good start is tough.

Risk 2 – Perhaps what you have discovered is so far ahead of everything else that there's no easy way to fit it into today's market. On a more mundane level, perhaps it will take time for the technology to become available either for manufacturing or for using your idea. We know that for all intents and purposes, Babbage had put together all the building blocks theoretically needed for a computer way back in the 1850s, but it took more than a century for computers to be made. Check for a good #fit, as it so very often happens that when there is no immediate fit (market fit, making fit, culture fit), further development may have to stop. In the Velcro tale, it took 10 years to get into production and 20 years to get from discovery to market acceptance - but our world of inventions is moving faster and faster, so you may not have to wait that long for your time to come!

Risk 3 – The world of innovation is accelerating. While you may be thinking that you are the newest entrant and readying for the newtech vs oldtech battle outlined in Risk 1, there might be alternative technology that makes your effort redundant just after or even before you launch.

Having really discovered something – pause and think it through:

• What does it do? How will people find it useful?
• How and where will it fit in, in today's market?
• Will it scale?
• What spin-offs will it support?
• Can we handle the competition?

Unless (and even if!) you are a genius on multiple fronts, here's a good time to deploy a close think tank to properly think it through. Please do all the basics including SWOTs and viewing from different perspectives (change hats) including gaming, and study what lies ahead... You have begun, but till you launch and succeed, all you've done is to make a discovery!

A final thought - if you value innovation, then surround yourself with innovators. There are of course plenty of inventors out there, but a surprising truth is that many of the folks around us are nascent inventors, yet unaware that they could be nurturing ideas that might change the world! Identifying the potential can be as simple as noting the persons who do their own research (love to learn), suggest process improvements that increase quality, or reduce wastage, or tweak alignment, or improve reliability. Keep your eyes wide open for those sparks of creativity, and then nurture them.

This is a somewhat shortened version of the full article that's in my blog as Decrypting Invention, Innovation, and Discovery

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And if we have not linked up yet, please feel free to connect with me ! If asked, my mailid is samlcarr at gmail dot com

A personal note – I have a strong sense of deja vu when looking over modern debates on the ingredients and processes of creativity – and what it reminds me of are some 16C (in England) debates e.g. on mimesis vs poesis.