“I’M OUT OF IDEAS,” SAYS EVERYONE I’VE EVER MET…
“Innovation” has become a catch-all buzzword that has very little substance right now. Why is that? Let’s explore by comparing it to some tangible concepts and proposing methods that will allow for real innovation to occur. By nailing down more concretely what it is and how to do it, I hope that the word “innovation” can be used more as a fully developed concept with real meaning.
Let’s start off by comparing innovation and creativity. Both are expansive ideas, but it seems that creativity has a more concrete meaning than innovation. I want to examine a specific interpretation of creativity that John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, discusses in his 1991 lecture about the modes of operating. According to Cleese, there are two ways that we work: open mode and closed mode.
Open mode is the more challenging of the two. It requires opening your brain to the widest possible view of an operation. Imagine walking down a busy street and looking at every passing face, seeing every piece of gum on the sidewalk, trying to listen to every conversation as it passes, identifying every smell as it assaults your nose, feeling the change in temperature as you pass through the shadow of a building. Absorbing everything around you, letting it all flow into your mind and making connections as you experience it, that is the open mode. It is difficult task and not a very safe way to walk down a busy street!
Closed mode is more familiar to us. It is the focused, head-down-and-get-the-work-done mode. This is the traditional, expected mode of the workplace and of our traditional educational system. We focus on one topic at a time, moving from subject to subject. Closed mode is certainly the safest way to traverse the urban grid, if the less interesting of the two.
Cleese emphasizes that creativity relies on using both modes of operation because each has important revelations and uses. The open mode is necessary to find that inspiration or novel idea, and maybe to innovate. The closed mode is crucial to work out and execute the connection of insight that occurred while operating in the open mode. In an ideal world you would flip from one mode to the other as easily as putting your right foot in front of your left foot to get to your destination. But each takes time and practice to develop. Our education system and work patterns focused us in the closed mode method so intensely that our open mode has atrophied almost to the point of non-existence. Our culture’s current difficulty is that we are trying to run our creativity and innovation platforms by using only one mode of operation. It’s a little like walking on only one leg…and, obviously, we are stumbling.
So let’s talk about how to fix the “running on one leg problem” at a company by assessing the ways that many companies try to fix it:
• Creating a tool to fix the problem — The en-vogue tools today to increase creativity are gamification techniques, social collaboration platforms and idea generation platforms /innovation platforms, but these tools alone will not solve the problem. They help coordinate the motions and patterns of creativity, but they aren’t a substitute. If we’re still using one mode of operation, just like if only one of your legs supports your weight, we’re not going anywhere fast. To actually increase creativity, we must focus on strengthening the unused leg — the open mode of thinking. This is out… Next!
• Implementing a new time model — What about a new way of working like Google’s 20-percent time model where they allow their employees to devote 20 percent of tier time to “innovation”? Not going to work either. If you haven’t been lifting weights your entire life, you can’t squat 1000 pounds the first time. When people haven’t exercised open thinking, they won’t know where to start with that 20-percent time, and it ultimately will be wasted. As my grandmother would say, start small and work your way up.
• Hiring your way out of the problem — You see companies grabbing talent from creativity leaders like Apple and Google to fix the problem, but while those hires may strengthen the ‘bones’ of an operation, muscles (i.e. the culture of the working environment and the people who work there) still need a lot of attention. Getting everyone on board is where you see your greatest gains, so, that leads me directly to…
What WILL work: getting your employees practiced and skilled at balancing both open and closed mode work methods. Have them look up from their closed-mode work at regular intervals, just to see with no agenda, or observe processes outside of their everyday work. Through the constant and purposeful introduction of observation techniques, you can create a system that builds everyone’s open mode of working and begin to balance all of the closed mode work they do. This will lead your company sprinting towards the finish line and not constantly hobbling along behind, yearning to catch up.
To wrap things up here, in the spirit of Mr. Cleese…
Question: How many executives does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: A roomful — they have to hold a meeting to discuss all the ramifications of the change.
Originally published in 2012 on the Electronic Ink Blog
