How Innovating Is (Almost) As Easy As Flipping A Switch
And almost as easy to learn
A friend of mine wrote a brief post about there being more to innovation than flipping a switch. After pausing for a moment, I thought, “wait, that can’t be right, I can get 20 people to innovate in less than two hours, and they start innovating in 15 minutes.” Not the same as flipping a switch, but not bad.
The more I thought about it, I realized that at one time I had almost 700 people working for me and some large percentage of them were innovating every day. To get each to the innovation point took less than two hours. So I was perplexed. Why did he write,
Innovation is not something you simply flip a switch to turn on. It is hard work, and there is no simple recipe for “doing” innovation.
I think the answer lies not in the difficulty of getting to innovation (watch children, they do it effortlessly), but in what we demand from innovation. If you desire what Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, or today Elon Musk have achieved with innovation then you will view it, in the works of Mark Wahlberg, as some “hard, hairy work.” If you want to improve something starting immediately, you will view it as entertaining, curiosity-fulfilling, and after a while,
Herewith my instruction book for getting into the innovation business in under two hours. Some assembly required.
1. Cast aside the notion that innovation is hard work.
Go into anything with the pre-conceived notion that it is hard work and what happens? You start off defensive, combative, irritable, and in a “no” state of mind. Innovation is not hard work. When I teach innovation we get to innovative ideas in about 15 minutes. We use the two hours to develop and refine those ideas. To use Clayton Christensen’s terminology, incremental innovation comes without much effort. If you want disruptive innovation, stick with the incremental, expand your horizons, and be ready to accept the unexpected. It may take longer, but it is worth the wait.
2. Don’t try to outdo Elon Musk.
If your next innovation must be better than building an all-electric hyperloop between Earth and Mars, you will be disappointed and innovation will seem hard. When those big ideas do come to you, rejoice. Elon Musk, alone and with others, has an abundance of Innovative (capital “I”) ideas (or at least the fortitude to pursue the ideas). SpaceX, PayPal, Hyperloop, Tesla, The Boring Company, and the list goes on.
Notice that these ideas aren’t Musk’s ideas — people have thought about going to Mars, less expensive space travel, alternative payment models, fast trains, and electric cars — before Musk. Musk adds innovative elements, but he also adds the fortitude to pursue ideas. Many people confuse innovating with executing. Executing is hard work.
Innovation can happen every day in small ways, and small things add up. Sitting in a room staring at a wall and saying “now I’m going to innovate” won’t work. But having a discrete goal, recognizing (or adding) some constraints, and focusing your efforts on that goal will work. Innovation doesn’t mean something new, it means solving a problem in a different and better way.
3. Dream big, but don’t be afraid to act small.
Students in my Entrepreneurial Lawyering class spend the semester developing innovative ideas. All start the semester dreaming big — they have outsized plans for what they want to accomplish and what they want to do. That is good, we all need to dream. But, if all we do is dream nothing gets done. So, they spend the semester turning the dream into something they could accomplish.
The world has over 4 billion people who lack adequate access to civil justice. Dream of how you would solve that problem, but recognize the world is not (despite what the computer geeks tell us) a binary place. If your goal is to go from zero to 4 billion people with adequate access, you will have problems. What about innovations that will address the lack of access challenge of the people who go to the local legal aid office? You can test and scale up and maybe you will, with innovations along the way, get to all 4 billion. But don’t be afraid to help the smaller number as a step on the road.
4. Be willing to invest in the tools.
“Ok,” you say, “here it comes. He wants me to go out and invest in computers and AI.” Nope. In this case the main tool is in your head. You can improve how you use the tool by working with those who use their tool and practice using it regularly. Design thinking. Process Improvement. These are methodologies that are freely available and yet have more power than the fastest computer. But, without someone showing you how to use them, they are as dead as the old PC sitting in your closet.
For most lawyers, the prior paragraph is the deal breaker. Lawyers don’t like consultants, trainers, or anyone else who enters the room and wants to share knowledge with them. I know that sounds harsh, but the psychologists, consultants, and trainers know what I am talking about. Lawyers are not receptive audiences.
Go to a company and explain they need to work with a consultant or trainer for a year to learn how to do something and the company goes into value mode. What will it cost, what will we learn, how will that help us, and if the value exceeds the cost — sign them up. Go to a law firm, and you will be shut down. If you are lucky, you might get “um, how about this — we will give you two hours next Thursday morning, that will be enough, right?” If you don’t know the tool and how to apply it with the methodologies, innovation will be hard.
5. Publicly acknowledge and celebrate innovation.
People generally like it when they receive recognition. Some like it when everyone gathers in the break room and the boss gives a big, public attaboy or attagirl. Others are okay with a bulletin board that lists innovations for the month, with the innovator’s name alongside a description of the innovation. But in most places, that is not what happens. In most cases, innovation is quietly accepted and everyone moves on. After a while, few people have the drive to innovate.
Innovators are human and they crave recognition of their ideas. Encourage the innovation flow, by recognizing gains along the way. I have yet to meet a person who is not an innovator. I have met many, who lacked what it takes to execute on the innovation, and many more who like to shut down innovation.
Let’s go back to my Entrepreneurial Lawyering class. Last year we had 100 minutes to take on a challenge — improve the sign-up system for courses. I had roughly 20 students in the class and this was their first, organized attempt at innovation using design thinking. At the end of the 100 minutes, and had well over 60 ways to improve the system. Every student had received at least two rounds of feedback on his or her ideas. Some were simple, some a bit more complex. But, we had 60 ideas!
Innovation is not hard, not complex, and everyone has the capacity to innovate. If you only want those ideas that will make you more money than Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, combined, well then good luck. If you want your business to run better, your clients to be happier, your costs to be lower, your profits to be higher, or just to make the world a better place, then innovation is your game. It might take longer than flipping a switch, but we can get you up and running in under two hours.
If you enjoyed reading this article, please clap (click the the clapping hands). The more you click (or the longer you hold down the icon), the more you enjoyed the story.
About: Ken is a speaker and author on innovation, leadership, and on the future of people, process, and technology. On Medium, he is a “Top 50” author on innovation, leadership, and artificial intelligence. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, and follow him on Facebook.
