I have been reading about innovation. There is some consensus in the books I have read that innovation is combinatorial and collaborative. And there of a lot of examples that show this has always been the case. Inventions such as the microwave oven, penicillin, Scotchgard, Teflon, and the Post-It Note are all the results of happy accidents or serendipity. In each of the examples something unexpected happened and its occurrence was observed by someone who understood the significance and implication of the event. So it would seem fortune does indeed favour the prepared.
For companies who wish to grow through innovation, they have to have a means of systematically creating the conditions for innovations to occur. They have to be prepared. But so too must their employees otherwise who will be doing the looking and the recognising? Whilst there is a burgeoning body of popular literature on the process by which companies can create innovation processes and thereby structure serendipity, less has been written on how individuals can become more personally innovative. And yet, it seems to me that we are a fundamental building block for organisations to become more innovative on the one hand and, on the other, if we are not innovative about our own futures, there is a strong likelihood we will be unemployed before very long. So there is a case to be made for working on ones own ability to think like an innovator. Consequently, I have been thinking about the practical things that I can do to develop my innovation capabilities and it comes down to being a combination of gaining knowledge and being open to seeing that knowledge through different eyes.
I think there are lots of practical things that I can do to gain knowledge that don´t require going back to formal study. For example, know the company strategy, read books, watch TED talks, read SlideShares, discover who the critical thinkers are and follow them on Twitter or subscribe to their blogs and/or listen to their podcasts. It´s never been easier to find people and knowledge than it is today. But you need to have a filter that cuts out the noise and the clutter. So you need to be selective. I have narrowed down the technology areas of interest and limited the number of different types of sources I will use. I am taking notes as I read and I am also using this blog as a means to digest and “think” about what I am learning.
The second part of figuring out how to get other views on things is something I have yet to do but I am thinking about simple things like, for example, talk to people from other departments, talk to friends, make these interactions a routine, structure them with a framework like SCAMPER to ask more exploratory, open-minded, playful, beginner´s mind types of questions. And listen more to the answers, don´t accept the first answer, keep asking the questions.
Whilst I don´t intend to invent anything anytime soon, I do know that reinvention of myself is a skill that will be necessary on my personal road to Serendip. And I truly believe that, “The harder I practice, the luckier I get.”