Innovation as Being Present
In a truly exquisite post, Esko Kilpo defined knowledge work as “humans being more intensely present for each other”. In an earlier, equally wonderful post, he questioned the nature of information as something independent from the parties exchanging it. He offered an alternative definition in which it arises from the relationship between sender and receiver. Accurate information would seem to require presence on the part of all parties. But what do we mean by “presence”, and how do we achieve it?
It is my belief that presence requires mindfulness. Mindfulness is a disciplined process of attending to the present moment. It’s important to understand that we’re not talking about forcing oneself to pay attention, or leaping into some kind of magical flow state where you can run faster, jump higher, and build better products faster. Mindfulness means relating without judgment to whatever is going on at the moment. Sometimes, for example, it means becoming suddenly aware of the fact that you’ve been daydreaming for the past 10 minutes, or that you’ve been indulging in wishing someone ill.
Post-industrial innovation relies on feedback loops. Agile product delivery doesn’t work if it just focuses on delivery, without understanding and responding to the outcomes that result from what you’ve delivered. Too many digital business practices optimize for output. Output-centered practices are not mindful. To really understand customer needs and behaviors, you have to momentarily give up trying to change things. You have to be present; i.e., mindful; i.e., without hope or fear of whatever the market, or your support team, or your monitoring tools are telling you.
Mindfulness brings us into the present. By doing so, it makes it possible for us to genuinely listen, and not just project our goals, prejudices, or fantasies onto the world. Mindfulness opens the way to awareness. Whereas mindfulness implies non-judgmental presence, awareness implies non-judgmental receptivity. When you are present, and you let the world in, you can see it accurately. When you see things accurately, you can appreciate their richness and potential. This is the point where truly beneficial innovation becomes possible.
Service is at the heart of the post-industrial economy. Service happens through serving others; that is, helping them accomplish their goals. To serve someone, you must be available for them. Availability requires mindfulness and awareness. If I want to buy a hamburger on my way home from work, but McDonald’s is closed, they aren’t available. If they’re open, but they ignore my request for a hamburger and instead give me a fish sandwich, they still aren’t available.
Webster’s Dictionary defines innovation as “the introduction of something new”. How do we know if what we create is beneficial, and not just different? How do we go beyond an output-centric focus on “delivering more”? In my view, mindfulness and awareness form the ground for innovation as benefit. Together they shift our approach from “introducing things” to “becoming more available”. When we do introduce something new, we do it in order to improve our ability to help. We do so based on presence and accurate listening. Most importantly, we treat presence and listening as central to the innovation process.
