Courses/Ingenuity 601/Innolution/Influences

Here are a few insights from the “Creativity” and “Innovation” literature in science and business. What I've focused on is the notion of how “Difference” has influenced scientists and innovators to come up with, and carry through to completion new ideas and the development of new products.

The core ideas I've gleaned:

1.Difference in Point of View. Stressed in the scientific literature – is the notion that break-throughs often occur by viewing a problem (read opportunity) from a different perspective. Interestingly, the “difference in point of view” often seems to be tied to the personal psychology of the individual.

2.Different Tools. Feynman's famous statement was that much of his success was due to having a “different toolbox”, and when he got to a problem, knowing the “conventional toolbox” had already been tried. Christensen stresses how new technologies, looking for application, can be that different toolbox.

3.Different Market. Christenson's “The Innovators Dilemma” stresses that often new innovations begin in niche markets that are ignored by bigger players. “Good to Great” stresses the 3M example of essentially making a corporate commitment to move out of mature markets into new markets in 5 year spans, by constantly innovating new products.

4.Different Organization (than the main-stream). Stressed in both “The Innovators Dilemma” and “Good to Great” is the role of Skunk-Works in an organization. A small sub-group that is isolated from the standard practices of the larger group, and hence has more freedom to see innovation through. This raises the idea that organizations of a certain size need to constantly “break up” if only metaphorically, to maintain their innovative capability. The standard success story is about Boeng's Skunk works. The standard failure in one organization becomes success is another is about how XEROX was unable to integrate the innovations from its XEROX PARC lab, but APPLE was able to successfully integrate them into the original Macintosh.

5.Role of Mentorship. It is both stressed in the Scientific and Business literature. “Artists, Craftsmen, Technocrats” looks at mentorship within a large banking organization, and how it leads to long-term partnerships between “Artists” and “Craftsmen” -- the first being more creative, the second better at bringing that creativity into an organization – both necessary for innovation. Both Holton's work on Einstein, and Gleick's work on Feynman stress the strong role played by early mentors (child-hood and teenage years) on the long term work of these individuals. Keller's biography of McKlintock has fewer clear early mentors.

6.Tacit Knowledge. This is the subject of Polyani's “Personal Knowledge”, Exemplified by McKlintock's life story in discovering transposable elements – where her work was not repeatable at the time, because other scientists could not match her technical lab skills. It is also exemplified in Pitcher's description of an “Artist Leader” who can summarize a strategic plan on the back of a napkin as a series of sketches. In each case, this is knowledge “at the fingertips”, gained through experience, and very difficult to teach. Rather it is learned through contact with someone who has that knowledge, and through personal application and practice. Though most of the literature here is in the scientific realm – it would seem tacit knowledge is critical in the case of new, undocumented technologies under development.

Some of the literature.

SCIENTIFIC

Gerald Holton. Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought http://www.amazon.ca/Thematic-Origins-Scientific-Thought-Gerald/dp/0674877462/ref=sr_1_1/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192069457&sr=1-1

Focuses mainly on Einstein's process of creation. His early mentorship by teachers – and his keen use of visualization and thought experiments to test ideas out.

Bruno Latour. Labaratory Life. The Construction of Scientific Facts. http://www.amazon.ca/Laboratory-Life-Construction-Scientific-Facts/dp/069102832X/ref=sr_1_2/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192069585&sr=1-2

Focusses on the day to day process of creating knowledge – particularly good for looking at interactions in a group, and the role of the “group leader” in a laboratory setting.

Michael Polyani. Personal Knowledge. Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. http://www.amazon.ca/Personal-Knowledge-Towards-Post-Critical-Philosophy/dp/0226672883/ref=sr_1_1/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192069712&sr=1-1

Focuses keenly on the “tacit knowledge” or knowledge at your fingertips that is difficult to transfer except by personal contact – and which is the key to mastery in fields requiring extreme skill. Essentially he argues that in personal knowledge, the person maps themselves into the problem they are trying to solve.

James Gleick. Genius. The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. http://www.amazon.ca/Genius-Life-Science-Richard-Feynman/dp/0679747044/ref=sr_1_2/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192069793&sr=1-2

The biography of Feynman stresses his penchant for approaching open and well known problems in his field (Physics) but always seeking a different angle of approach. Illustrates the use of a different toolbox (Feynman Diagrams) to solve more simply, problems solved with greateer difficulty by conventional tools. Also documents his interactions with Danny Hillis group in building the Connection Machine – an interesting case of a world class physicist mentoring a group of technical and business innovators.

Evelyn Fox Keller. A Feeling for the Organism. http://www.amazon.ca/Feeling-Organism-Life-Barbara-McClintock/dp/071671504X/ref=sr_1_1/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192070077&sr=1-1

Again, Focuses on the psychology of a different point of view, in the process of creating new insights. Also documents the difficulty of holding such a point of view before its time.

BUSINESS

Patricia Pitcher. Artists, Craftsmen, Technocrats. The dreams, realities, and illusions of leadership. http://www.amazon.ca/Artists-craftsmen-technocrats-realities-leadership/dp/0773728589/ref=sr_1_1/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192073883&sr=1-1

A careful dissection of how a highly innovative banking firm lost its mojo, and its capability to innovate. Looks particularly into the play of personalities that can either promote or kill innovation in an organization.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. Built to Last. Succesful Habits of Visonary Companies. http://www.amazon.ca/Built-Last-Successful-Visionary-Companies/dp/0060516402/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&qid=1192074060&sr=1-1 Jim Collins. Good to Great. Why some companies make the leap and others don't. http://www.amazon.ca/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/0066620996/ref=sr_1_1/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192074060&sr=1-1

Two part story comparing a critical set of companies – and identifying (a) why some companies constantly innovated, re-invented themselves, and survived over a grreat span of time and (b) the transition from Good to Great in a company. Stresses repeatedly how corporate culture focused on excellence and audacious goals is critical to seeding an environment for innovation. Lots of great indiviual examples.

Warren Bennis. Organizing Genius. The Secrets of Creative Collaboration. http://www.amazon.ca/Organizing-Genius-Secrets-Creative-Collaboration/dp/0201339897/ref=sr_1_1/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192074233&sr=1-1

Some of the data in this book is derivative from “Built to Last”. But it Focuses on the idea that “Genius” is largely a collaborative rather than individual phenomena. As such, many of the examples are on teams of innovators. Again stresses culture, and the use of audacious goals to spur creativity to actually get a product that “ships” -- i.e. not the ideal theoretical product, but the actual one that gets built.

Clayton Christensen. The Innovators Dilemma. http://www.amazon.ca/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-Business/dp/0060521996/ref=sr_1_1/701-3381745-2456360?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192074381&sr=1-1

Based on detailed data from the hard-drive industry – where new technologies appear every few years. Introduces the notion of “Disruptive” Innovations – those that create whole new sectors of the economy, rather than carving out space in existing sectors. Again stresses the difficulty of new innovative technologies to (a) find markets and (b) find support in larger organizations. Notes that many such technologies develop in a different market than their innovators intended, and often begin life “feature poor” but then catch up to less innovative technologies.