Innovation and Creativity
An Approach
How do we achieve success? “Be more creative.”, they say. “You have to be more innovative.”
It sounds like good advice, I guess. But how can we do it? How do we see the things that others don’t? How to we encourage good ideas to surface when our minds are blank? How can we approach something like creativity or innovation in a structured manner with next steps given that the very nature of each is disrupting what is already structured?
The question is one that I have pondered for a number of years. Three to be exact. And I’d like to proudly say I have a little better of an idea than I had three years ago. I’d like to share it with you.
There are those who will say that you can’t choose to be creative or innovative, they are adjectives cloaked in spontaneity. You cannot coax or prod them out of your own volition, but that they appear on their own and in their own time. It is not something you “try”. It is something that just happens. While I have respect for this point of view and agree that there is some seemingly intangible aspect to it, I feel it is not the whole story. We can in fact “try” and succeed.
When we “try” to be innovative or creative, we are searching for something.
It might be something purposeful or solution-driven, like a more efficient way to do something that is tedious. It may also be an idea to create something in a way that evokes new response or attention, some feeling like awe or wonder. Signal over noise. It could be both.
When we search for some ordinary object, we inspect what is already there and look for what is not. It becomes a paradox. How can see what is not there? And why do we find it when we stop looking?
When we search for an idea, we are usually not quite sure what we are searching for, and it becomes even more difficult. We probably only know a few details and perhaps what we definitely are not looking for.
We need to reframe our point of view from the black and white of “what is there” and “what is not there” to the various shades in between of “what could possibly (not probably, and that is key) be there and what is surely not there”. It’s all about opening your eyes to a new space of possibilities.
I’d like to share a more structured approach to how we can start to do this a little more in our everyday and perhaps make the world just a little better and more exciting for it.
The Approach
There is a term that has been floating around academia and scholarship for quite some time called the “Mental Model”. It is an internal (in your brain) representation of how you understand something external (in the world). It will be the basis for our approach.
Everything each of us knows about the world around us fits into a mental model; we each hold a small amount of mental models in our head each of which represents a “real-world” model. When we are innovative or creative including those instances where brilliant ideas pop into our head without impetus, they have to come from the space of what we already know. You’re simply not going to have a disruptive insight about the next way to build a rocket ship if you don’t know anything about rockets. An idea for a creative new recipe won’t pop into your head if you have never cooked anything. Our search for an innovative idea has to come from the space of mental models we already hold in our heads. Consequently, the more models we hold the more places we have to search.
We now have a mental model space that consists of all the models we know which is a subset of all mental models out there (this is the sum of everything everyone knows by definition). When we have those brilliant AHA moments, they must pop up from our own mental model space. Ideally, the space is growing as we are learning, and we will have more surface area to search. Most of us wait for them to pop up instead of actively searching.
Let’s talk about how you can actively search. Suppose you are entering an art show. It has a few very specific rules about what you cannot enter but very few rules about what you can. You’re allowed to bring along your entire mental model space for art plus every other mental model you hold about everything else. What you are trained to do is to observe the rules for what art you cannot enter and then jump to the small space of models that encompasses what art you have done before. The problem is that you are missing a whole space of wisdom in between what is obvious and what is impossible. You are missing what is possible. What is probable is in the first space — the obvious. What is possible however, only has a small box around it defined by the art show rules. Between the two spaces is a world of possibility.
Remember that when we are searching for what is not there, it won’t come from the mental models we are used to using for particular subject like the mental models of art that the artists already knows. It in fact can’t come from mental models we don’t know. So it has to come from some space in between; this space is comprised of other mental models we hold about different subjects, perhaps loosely related ones. Creativity and Innovation are fueled by a multidisciplinary engine.
To “do” innovation or creativity, first consider the fundamental mental models that cannot change. These are the art show rules. They are your basis from which to ideate. At a broader level, they are the rules of our universe. Ones that are sewn into the fabric of reality, such as gravity or the human need for social contact. They do not change, and they create a box around our possibilities.
Second, consider the space of all models including ones across discipline boundaries that may fit. We can change everything above the fundamentals. Work through all the other mental models you hold and see what applies. Thinking about how you plan a meal, think about how you build an excel file, think about how you plant a garden, and think about how you board an airplane. Move to more complicate models from your unique knowledge. Create a checklist of your favorite models.Think about them in the context of your ideation. In between ideations, add to your collection of mental models by delving into how things around you work.
Every creative endeavor came from an attempt at building something in this space of possibility. Every innovative project started as an idea that was possible, it was just not necessarily probable when it was conceived.
I wish you luck in your search.
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If you liked what you read, be sure to check out my full length series on The Innovation Strategy. Here, I make this a little less abstract.
Thank You for reading!
