Have you heard the innovation stories of WD-40 and failing fast? Are you persistent in the use of change in your business?
Good ideas are common. What’s uncommon are people who will work hard enough to bring them about.
Ashleigh Brilliant
What is innovation?
Innovation is an idea or design put to good use. Does it have to be new? Heavens no. In fact, the best innovations are old ideas from a different domain transferred to a new area.
From Dan Pink’s Blog, we found the following events on innovation that we would like to share with you:
A study of the top 50 game-changing innovations over a 100 year period showed that nearly 80% of those innovations were sparked by someone whose primary expertise was outside the field in which the innovation breakthrough took place.
Wow! 80% created by someone outside the field where innovation occurred!
The next big thing always starts out looking like nothing at all. If it was easy to see coming, everybody would be doing it already and the market impact would be minimal. So you can never create something truly new based on what you already know. The only way to find it is to start looking.
Not all who wander are lost. The trick is to wander with purpose.
Innovation stories … why innovate?
This is a real question to ask Apple or 3M … or maybe IBM, Google, Amazon, IDEO, or hundreds of other businesses seeking innovation for continued competitive advantages. They certainly know why they innovate, don’t you think?
Do you first experiment with prototype testing before full-scale rollout?
In his book, The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelly writes:
Quick prototyping is about acting before you have the answers, about taking chances, stumbling a little, but then making it right.
Prototyping is problem-solving. It’s a culture and a language. You can prototype just about anything – a new product or service or a special promotion. What counts is moving the ball forward, achieving some part of your goal. Prototyping is the shorthand of innovation.
Many of us have several cans of WD-40 around our home. Most of us have never heard its story.
WD-40 is the trademark name of a penetrating oil and water-displacing spray. It was developed in 1953 by Norm Larsen, founder of the Rocket Chemical Company. WD-40, abbreviated from the phrase, Water Displacement, 40th formula, was originally designed to repel water and prevent corrosion, and later was found to have numerous household uses.
Larsen was attempting to create a formula to prevent corrosion in nuclear missiles, by displacing the standing water that causes it.
Good executives are often the smartest guys in the room. Through years of experience solving tough problems, they learn to be masters of their craft and are able to mentor those around them. A great operational manager is a great coach, guiding others around them to achieve more than they thought they could.
Unfortunately, innovation isn’t about what you know, but what you don’t.. It requires you to explore, push boundaries and venture into uncharted areas in which there often are no true experts. You’re basically flying blind, which can be incredibly uncomfortable, especially to those who have had a strong track record of success in a structured environment.
That’s why the first step to making the shift from operations to innovation is to learn how to become the dumbest guy in the room instead of the smartest. Admit to yourself that you don’t know what you need to succeed and begin to explore. Actively seek out those who know and understand things that you don’t.
So, why is WD-40 named WD-40?
Because the first 39 water displacement formulas designed by Larsen and his company failed.
Stories of innovation and creativity
What can we learn from this story?
Innovation requires lots of patience and persistence. It requires you to experiment fearlessly.
To be successful in innovation, you need to:
Great innovation stories
Fail fast … learn fast … fix fast
Customers don’t care how many failures you had … but they won’t wait.
Interesting innovation stories … another valuable lesson
But first, here are several examples of the experience.
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, but it wasn’t until 15 years later, in 1943, that the miracle drug came into widespread use. Alan Turing came up with the idea of the universal computer in 1936, but it wasn’t until 1946 that one was built and not until the 1990’s that computers began to impact productivity statistics.
We tend to think of innovation as arising from a single brilliant flash of insight, but the truth is that it is a drawn-out process involving the discovery of insight, the engineering a solution and then the transformation of an industry or field. That’s almost never achieved by one person or even within one organization.
The reason that Fleming was unable to bring Penicillin to market was that, as a biologist, he lacked many of the requisite skills. It wasn’t until a decade later that two chemists, Howard Florey, and Ernst Boris Chain, picked up the problem and were able to synthesize penicillin. Even then, it took people with additional expertise in fermentation and manufacturing to turn it into the miracle cure we know today.
This isn’t the exception, but the norm. Darwin’s theory of natural selection borrowed ideas from Thomas Malthus, an economist and Charles Lyell, a geologist. Watson and Crick’s discovery of DNA was not achieved by simply plowing away at the lab, but by incorporating discoveries in biology, chemistry, and x-ray diffraction to inform their model building.
Great innovation almost never occurs within one field of expertise but is almost invariably the product of synthesis across domains.
Stories of innovation and creativity … secrets to innovation success
Recognize the need to improve
It doesn’t take rocket scientists to realize that the competitive marketplace is not a static environment. To stay ahead of your competition you need to consistently find new products and services … from the innovative process.
Best stories about innovation … look at things in new ways
Disruptive innovation and change is a process chock full of surprise—failures, successes, unexpected technological advancements, aggressive moves, customer feedback, political and regulatory shifts, and other unforeseen events. Most leaders assume surprises always should be avoided. But those who realize that surprises are an inevitable part of the business (just like life) are best equipped to use surprise as a strategic tool—which makes them the agilest and fastest to respond to or capitalize on unforeseen events.
Connect the disconnected
While we like to think of innovators being lonely men on the mountain, only coming down, like Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, to proclaim great revelations, the truth is that significant breakthroughs usually come from synthesizing ideas from different domains.
One famous historical example is that of the discovery of genetics. In 1865, when Gregor Mendel published his groundbreaking study of inheritance of characteristics in pea plants, it went nowhere. It had taken nearly a half-century before the concept was combined with Darwin’s natural selection to unleash a torrent of innovations in medicine and science.
Commit to innovation culture
How big of a deal is creating an innovative culture for your business? In this blog, we highlight important principles of business culture. As you will see, best companies certainly consider this culture an enormous deal. They could be a great way for your business to improve innovation effectiveness.
You need to have the ability to challenge business traditions as often as possible. It’s also important to recognize that culture comes from the people—it is the people. Think about the individuals within your organization—what are their personalities like? Who are they outside of work? What tickles their fancy? All of these things lend to the culture of your organization, and ultimately your products and services.
Remember, never be done with things … life is a perpetual prototype.
The bottom line
So if you want to find a truly great innovator, don’t look for the ones that make the biggest headlines are that are most inspiring on stage. Look for those who spend their time a bit off to the side, sharing ideas, supporting others, and quietly pursuing a path that few others are even aware of.
Please share an innovation or adaptation experience with this community.
Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.