To Do a Different Thing requires that we Do Things Differently

Over the last month I have outlined two levels of innovation. The first was core innovation, which is the sort of retooling and improving good ideas that happens on a recurring basis in one’s area of work. The second type of innovation was adjacent innovation. Adjacent innovation takes place when you join your work in collaboration with another organization or individual, combining the skills and resources of two separate entities. A third level of innovation is transformative innovation, which means to truly do different things.

 

Innovation that is truly transformative generally needs different people, different motivational factors, and different support systems. And indeed, these game-changing and head-turning innovations do not come without substantial risk to the status-quo, or to conventional systems of operation.

Malcolm Gladwell addressed this topic in his book, The Gift of Doubt. Gladwell references Albert Hirschman and his quote regarding the power of failure:

 

“We may be dealing here with a general principle of action,” Hirschman wrote. He continues: “Creativity always comes as a surprise to us; therefore we can never count on it and we dare not believe in it until it has happened. In other words, we would not consciously engage upon tasks whose success clearly requires that creativity be forthcoming. Hence, the only way in which we can bring our creative resources fully into play is by misjudging the nature of the task, by presenting it to ourselves as more routine, simple, undemanding of genuine creativity than it will turn out to be.” He continues, “people don’t seek out challenges. They are….

 

This idea is at the heart of the “Hiding Hand” principle—a play on Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” idea. This means that the entrepreneur and innovator takes risks, but does not see herself or himself as a risk-taker, because he/she operates under the useful delusion that what s/he’s attempting is not risky. Then, trapped in mid-mountain, people discover the truth—and, because it is too late to turn back, they’re forced to finish the job. And essentially the same idea, even though formulated in a vastly different spirit, is found in Nietzsche’s famous maxim, “That which does not destroy me, makes me stronger.”  (or for younger readers, Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger"). This sentence admirably epitomizes several of the great innovations of the past.

 

In the world of creativity and innovation, there is no shortage of creativity or creative people. The shortage is of innovators. All too often, people believe that creativity automatically leads to innovation. It does not. Creative people tend to pass the responsibility for getting down to brass tacks to others. They are the bottleneck. They make none of the right kind of effort to help their ideas get a hearing. The fact that you can put a dozen inexperienced people in a room and conduct a brainstorming session that produces exciting new ideas shows how little relative importance ideas themselves have. Idea people constantly pepper everybody with proposals and memorandums that are just brief enough to get attention, to intrigue and sustain interest, but too short to include any responsible suggestions for implementation. Creativity without action-oriented follow-through is a barren form of behavior. In a sense, it is irresponsible. (Theodore Levitt, Harvard University)  The scarce people are the ones who have the know-how, energy, daring, and staying power to implement ideas.

 

Transformative innovation takes risk, and takes creativity to its most positive and action-oriented extreme. In short, to do a different thing requires that we do things differently. This is the challenge, and the potential of transformative innovation.