Innovation by SIT

     When I started writing for this blog one of my goals was to show that SIT principles are universal and can actually be found everywhere - in brilliant solutions to problems of all kinds, in stories, movies, scientific theories and in…

… jokes.

Humor and creativity go hand in hand, so it stands to reason that we’ll find SIT principles in jokes (the good ones, at least).

Many people believe that analyzing jokes actually kills them, so if you’re one of those, I’m about to kill one for you…

I’d like to thank Don Young for sending in this story a few years back.

So here it is:

A wealthy man decided to go on a safari in Africa. He takes his faithful pet dog along for company. One day the dog starts chasing butterflies, and before long he discovers that he’s lost. So, wandering about he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the obvious intention of having lunch.

The dog thinks, “Boyo, I’m in deep doo-doo now.” (He was an Irish setter)…. Then he notices some bones on the ground close by, and immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat.

{Roni killing the joke: 1:

Notice SIT in action here. The dog had a problem and instead of looking at the threat - the leopard - he looked around for some resource that could help him.}

Just as the leopard is about to leap, the dog exclaims loudly, “Man, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here?”

{Roni killing the joke for the second time:

2. Sometimes a bit of courage helps too…}

Hearing this, the leopard halts his attack in mid stride as a look of terror comes over him, and slinks away into the trees. “Whew”, says the leopard. “That was close. That dog nearly had me.”

{Roni killing the joke x 3:

3. A message for leopards: Not everyone standing near leopard bones has actually devoured a leopard.}

Meanwhile, a monkey who’s been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree figures that he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes. But the dog sees him heading toward the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up.

 The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard. The cat is furious at being made a fool and says, “Here monkey, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine.”

 Now the dog sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back, and thinks,” What am I going to do now?”

{Now Roni is REALLY killing the joke! Think about what the dog should do now…}
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But instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers pretending he hasn’t seen them yet. And just when they get close enough to hear, the dog says, “Where’s that monkey. I can never trust him. I sent him off half an hour ago to bring me another leopard, and he’s still not back!!”

A great example of SIT’s Qualitative Change principle: Instead of thinking why X is a PROBLEM, think of X as a necessary condition for the solution.

See you all in my next post,

Roni

Roni and the rest of us at SIT would be happy to talk to you about innovation.

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