The uncomfortable path to innovation

Imagine being able to create a ‘M-Pesa like’ product that transforms your industry. Creating a product or service that makes the competition redundant is the ideal. So, how does one create a disruptive innovation? Not fake, using ‘innovation’ simply as a buzz word. Not ‘copy paste’ doing what everyone else is doing, and with some hype, fuelled by exotic words, ‘trying to pull off a quick one’ on gullible customers.

Seeing what others miss

Aim is to take successful concepts from one domain to another, bridging very different fields to solve problems. Look at nature, or everyday experiences to find a functional ‘structure’ that can be applied to a new problem.

Swiss engineer George de Mestral invented Velcro after observing how burrs of seeds stuck to his dog’s fur, leading to the creation of hook-and-loop fasteners.

In sportswear, designers used the suspension concept of Formula 1 racing cars to create the Nike Shox running shoe, transferring a specialised suspension principle from a different domain.

Read: Turning those ideas into innovation

Disruptive innovation is rare. But why? Starting an innovation journey can lead down two different paths. First is applying first principles thinking. Problem solving by breaking down complex situations into their most basic, fundamental elements, based on facts that are known to be absolutely true. Building a solution from scratch, rather than creating on the similar.

Creating from analogy

Thinking by analogy is the second approach. More than 400 years ago, Johannes Kepler, German astronomer and polymath applied thinking by analogy to discover three laws of planetary motion, one of which is that the planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun as the focus.

“Kepler’s intellectual wanderings traced a staggering journey.” Conventional wisdom, more than four centuries ago was that the planets were ‘imbued with souls.’ Or that as Socrates had suggested, that our universe consisted of interlocking crystalline spheres in perfect circles, revolving around the stationary planet earth. Kepler’s thinking by analogy led him to his laws of planetary motion, showing that the planets move in ellipses, that are predictable based on their size and relation to the sun.

“More important, Kepler invented astrophysics. He did not inherit an idea of universal physical forces. There was no concept of gravity as a force, and he had no notion of momentum that keeps the planets in motion. Analogies were all he had. He became the first discoverer of causal physical laws for phenomena in the heavens, and he realised it, ‘Ye physicists’ he wrote when he published his laws of planetary motion, ‘prick your ears, for now we are going to invade your territory,’ writes David Epstein in his fascinating book, Range.

Kepler “eventually decided that celestial bodies pulled one another, and larger bodies had more pull. That led him to claim correctly that the moon influenced tides on earth.”

Thinking outside experience

In digging deep, going beyond how one normally thinks in business, feeling confused is going to be inevitable.

“Before he began his tortuous march of analogies toward reimagining the universe, Kepler had to get very confused on his homework. Unlike Galileo and Isaac Newton, he documented his confusion. ‘What matters to me’, Kepler wrote, ‘is not merely to impart to the reader what I have to say, but above all to convey to him the reasons, subterfuges, and lucky hazards which led me to my discoveries’,” explains Epstein.

When thinking by analogy to solve business management problems, it helps to go wild, journey completely outside your comfortable universe of management experience. In your innovation journey, some problems are going to look similar on the surface, but the aim is to look deeper at the structure of problems. And, think, is this a ‘kind’ or ‘wicked’ context?

Kind or wicked?

Think of business problems and innovation existing in two worlds. Ordered, predictable, following clear rules, and repetitive describes a ‘kind world’. This is the realm of necessary compliance, bureaucracy and games like chess or golf – the guidelines are quite clear.

Surprising, unpredictable, a touch chaotic, where the rules are constantly changing describes the ‘wicked world’. In looking for analogies that lead to innovation, it’s likely one has to go wild, and think outside one’s normal domain of experience. Move from the routine of daily comforts, to the uncomfort of being challenged, thinking way outside the bounds of the box.

First port of call will be to spot surface analogies that pop to mind. work for novel problems based on a ‘kind world’ hypothesis based on repeating patterns. Catch is that we don’t stay in the same village on the savannah all our lives.

In practice, the current business world is not so kind -- it requires thinking that cannot fall back on previous experience. Thankfully with a catalyst, profitable innovation can be created in sprint scrum sessions – with a focus on thinking how, not the what, you already know.

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