Some people seem to be full of ideas. All the time. Others, claim to have no original ideas. We all have original ideas but we need to train ourselves to tune in and capture them at birth. It is yet another muscle that needs training!
Are you born an innovator?
Maybe there is an element of genius for certain fields but it is definitely a skill all of us can develop.
Is great innovation the result of young age?
No. Some achieve greatness with their ideas before the age of 30, others, later in life.
Enter Shoshin, the Zen Buddhism word meaning beginner’s mind to describe an attitude “of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject“. The Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki explained that in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few“.
Being able to see things with a new set of eyes over and over again is extremely powerful and unleashes an immense flow of creativity.
Meanwhile, expertise and long experience, which usually come with extensive study of a certain subject matter, are highly valued in the business world.
Though those do help one gain knowledge and deepen their understanding of the subject in question, they can also be inhibiting to the creative process by narrowing one’s perspective of viewing things in a new light.
As one climbs the corporate ladder, one tends to keep repeating what has worked for them during their journey, expecting to achieve the same level of success reached thus far.
How can one expect to come up with a disruptive/innovative/exciting new idea or product by playing it safe?
Throughout the years people tend to develop internal mechanisms to question new things/ideas/tools that come up.
They tend to be resistant to new ways of working, especially if it is not coming as their suggestion.
Though an important feature of human evolution (“Orange berry killed tribesman must avoid everything orange”), in business one needs to be open to reevaluate their prejudices.
I have facilitated numerous workshops where someone shares an idea, only for it to be shot down within seconds from someone who has been in the company too long and “has tried this 5 years ago and it did not work” or with a “yes but..” by someone who feels the need to sound wiser.
Some need to feel like they are the smartest person in the room, others want to keep a tight line of command, want to feel like an authority or just win. Simply put, ego gets in the way.
Can we learn something from a truly great master committed to being a lifelong student?
In August of 1957, Pablo Picasso embarks on a 4,5 month exploration of a Velázquez painting he had seen as a young man in the Prado museum 50 years earlier. He draws different interpretations of it 49 times!
Picasso takes a week off in September to release stress from the obsessive study of the Velasquez painting, and creates 9 paintings of the pigeons that gather in the balcony outside his studio.
Every day, he looks out of the window and manages to see something as mundane (and dirty) as pigeons in a whole different way.
He then goes back to obsessively paint the Meninas, over and over again. At this point in his life, he is a grand master and an expert of every aspect of the Velasquez painting but still managed to produce new perspectives of it.
Same theme, a new set of eyes. The embodiment of shoshin.
Expertise then does not have to be counterintuitive to creativity and innovation.
Creating a space where creativity and ideation is safe and part of the company’s culture and combining it with the existing expertise is the key to delivering truly innovative solutions/products.
How can you introduce shoshin in all aspects of your everyday life?
1. Commit to lifelong learning. Aim to learn something new, take a course in something, rotate jobs in your organisation. Anything that will challenge your way of thinking.
2. Be your own devil’s advocate. If you feel strongly about something, question why you feel so and try to approach it from another perspective. What would you say if you were sitting on the other end of the table? Even if you still don’t agree, it is great training!
3. Let people wonder why you don’t speak (rather than why you do). Can you sit through an entire meeting without saying a word? Especially if you are the manager of the team or the department, resist the temptation to share your expertise or opinion. Meanwhile…
4. Actively listen to what others are saying, ask them questions to help them build their thought process and foster a culture that allows people to speak up and share.
5. Keep your ego at bay by not steering or taking over the ideation process especially if you are the team / department leader. If you react strongly towards an idea first question yourself on why this is so (be honest!).
Maybe an idea has been tried before but the market/team/company conditions were different or worth revisiting it and approaching it in a new light. (why has it not worked? what can we do differently?)
6. Allow innovation to exist outside of a new product development process. If you have an expectation of what you want the result to be, you will never come up with truly innovative products/services.
Innovative companies such as Google allow their employees to work on whatever initiative they wish up to 20% of their time. It has been part of the company’s DNA.
This is not cutting back on working hours but an investment into the future.
Innovation is not just about coming up with the next revolution. It is an approach to living a curious life.