Innovation by SIT

This is not a ‘check-out-this-cool-link’ post. It’s not a ‘I-need-to-pitch-a-sale-so-I’m-faking-a-
blog’ either. Not even a ‘I’m here I’m here’, post. It’s a simple ‘I-think-I-have-a-genuine-
insight-to-share-and-would-appreciate-your-thoughts’ post. The good old kind. Its probably my insight only because I was too lazy to look it up, or because I just didn’t share it with anyone to hear them say: Duh!
So for all it’s worth here it is. Enjoy!

© iStockphoto.com/Ljupco

They say that knowing the problem is half way to meeting the solution. I think, who ever said that was either grossly mistaken or had never met with a real problem :). Nevertheless, I must agree that ‘Knowing’ the problem, can be, instrumental for its resolution. But Knowing the problem can’t be a problem. Can it? Knowing is easy. The problem is a noisy pesky fellow, difficult to miss. So all we need is someone with a hefty creativity-out of the box-weapon, to blast it clear. We meet with experts, offering to help us find a creative solution to a problem, your problem, any problem. And as great as they are (and many times, they are!), they too often miss-shoot.

You see, some problems are difficult to spot. Sure you can identify the symptoms: Something is not working properly (or at all). You’ve tried just about everything to make it work. You at your wits’ end and so you look for a different, creative solution. But do you really know the problem or can you only point to the symptoms? Challenging problems are challenging for a reason. They confront us with the ghosts of thinking – our mental fixedness. These problems, many times, arise because of our inability to look at the obvious, differently. They are founded on fixedness, and fixedness, like ghosts, has this annoying characteristic of being almost invisible. So although identifying the pains is easy, locating the source is, well, half way to meeting the solution.

Innovation experts are pitching to arm you with methods that you can learn, apply and duplicate quickly. But the expertise they really offer (or should offer) is how to spot these mental ghosts; how to mark where and when to use these tools. It usually takes an outsider with a fresh eye, someone not fully immersed in the problem. The longer you are around ghosts the fainter they become. It also takes guts. As with ghosts you need to be brave. Brave enough to look directly at what you are sure is not there and imagine what would happen if it were.
Many can buy a problem solving plasma gun, but only few can tell you where to aim.

I showed this post to a friend, whose advice I appreciate, and he offered I give a clue about my future posts. Not sure I know what they’ll be, and if you’ll ask I’ll share some hints on how to locate the mental ghosts of fixedness (though I am not sure I am the expert to consult). Yet, I should say that the insight I wanted to share here is much more modest: – you have a much better chance of hitting something if you know where it is. So when you look for help in creativity or innovation, my two cents are to look for someone with a good aim.