Innovation Evolution pt.I
No one fully understands the brain. The irony of the perpetual race into space and yet the complexities of the mind still baffles us.
Creativity is an area where psychologists and neurologists alike debate time and time again. Whilst you can blame stupid decisions on your frontal lobe, innovation and ideation remain a mystery — ironically, everyone seems to be looking for that light-bulb moment.
What follows is a psychological [part I] defining of creativity and innovation, with a following part II scoping the science behind creativity and where innovation comes from within our brains.
Creativity is innovation without constraints
The technological age and the dawn of the Internet of Things (IoT) has lead to thousands of micro, and huge leaps in robotics over the past decade. These intelligent beings not only solve mundane aspects of life through scripts, but are increasingly being trained to operate with human intelligence and cognitive thought. However, robots will always lack a uniqueness of humanity; innovation. Like other species of animal we cohabitate the world with, robots cannot ideate to the point of innovation, which encompass intellectual, emotional and physical intelligence. Innovation is almost the thing that makes us, Us
This emotional connection and intelligence led to Steve Jobs creating Apple, when in India he was inspired by people and the need to connect. The innovative creativity of the human mind will keep us ahead of smart machines in an increasingly automated world — that human connection will never be lost.
So we all know that Steve Jobs could innovate, could spring ideas from thin air and resolve life’s struggles through simple UX led design — But can anyone innovate? Does this power lie in the hands of a select few or is it available to the masses?
Nature or nurture?
I firmly believe that anyone can innovate and create. With the right level of passion, effort level and that primary spark can be enough to spur ideation in anyone. Further continuous practice in giving attention to the thoughts and ideas we naturally generate soon result in innovation becoming a habit of subconscious mind. If you think of those around you who are known to have an innovative personality, do they really have an innate innovation or do they apply themselves in a more creative way.
The research supports this view, as they indicate that an innovative mind is not necessarily of nature, but can be developed through techniques of observation, thinking and the most important, space. Like with habitual behaviour that can be initiated through micro-repetitions until it becomes a sub-conscious necessity, innovative thought can be thought of as a habit or skill. Recent research on neuroplasticity demonstrates that the brain has the ability to change and learn new things throughout life by forming new connections between brain cells. So, learning is a lifelong process, and we can learn to innovate at any age — if we can learn to innovate, we open limitless opportunity.
I have highlighted space as a key component in creative thought, as the consistent pressure we face day to day gives no time for our mind to breathe. If we leave ourselves to operate within the open field of detail and tasks, how can we succeed in moving the ball further up the field. It would be like if defenders in football were to just pass the ball to each other for 90 minutes; they would have 100% pass completion and 100% possession, but have not moved up the pitch in any way. But, if they raise their head and breathe, they might find that killer pass up field.
Win or learn
One of the roadblocks to innovation is the general fear of failure. It is a totally human reaction when taking actions we don’t know the consequences of, but we must remind ourselves that we should see it as a win or learn scenario, with environments which limit your ability to trial and create being ones which are short-term focussed. Fail fast, learn fast is an axiom well known and practiced in the startup world, for instance. Nine startups in every ten fail, but this does not stop venture capitalists from investing in the 11th . In the VC world, innovators are given more weight if they have a story of failure to share. So, an innovative mind also involves learning how to deal with failure. If we learn to view failure in a positive way, even in the depths of childhood, there will be higher risk-taking, reward-achieving ability in adulthood.
Aspirations in life will always change, as will priorities, ambitions in work and beyond. As Einstein said, it is insane to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results! So, if we need different experiences, different learnings, we need to try different things, we need to innovate, we need to unleash the potential of the human innovative mind. To develop our creative mind, we should continually challenge our ability to assess details in a conscious and cognitive way, rather than in a task based way. Doing this will allows us to apply scope, space and innovative creation to propel ourselves forward.
