The 4 Lenses of Innovation by Rowan Gibson March 2015, Wiley
When an innovation book is packaged in a unique and colorful format filled with bright graphics and web-like headers like "Repurpose Redeploy & Recombine", "Leveraging Resources", "Innovating from the customer backward," and my favorite, “Understanding Nerds" (all in red), you know the author and the publisher have taken this special opportunity to reach readers in an unconventional way. They are in fact duplicating the feel of creative moments, showing us the apparent sparks and highs one would expect from the best innovation moments. But the whole innovation craze can be, like social media, a moving puzzle.
I love flipping through this book – there are surprises. For example, Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence, a mammoth marker for the Renaissance, shows up as part of Gibson’s world history graphic, the move from feudal systems, the growth of trade in Italian coastal cities, the emergence of a middle class, increased foreign travel, the rise of mechanized industries, and the proliferation of books (page 18 - 19). The specific details of individual innovations – books and typesetting, for example – seen in the context of big rippling follow-on movements like the growth of paper-making industry, the use of eyeglasses!, then the spread of humanism, along with the challenge to the Papacy and the rise of Protestantism, prove to us how one simple innovation – good or bad – cascades and enlarges entire worlds.
But pinning down the formula for creativity and innovation is still tough. Can you make an artist into an electronics engineer? Can teams of physicians, experts in their exacting fields, learn to regulate factory flows, and would we want to make them do that? Or more specific to one particular spark, can we open the routine business world to illuminate those singular moments that lead to new products and even new processes?
Steve Jobs’ knew skills and an attitude that he drew from many different sources – his adoptive family, his West Coast environment, his interest in calligraphy, and his friendship with geeks. It’s hard to say how these seemingly dissimilar interests interacted to produce the first Apple, but somehow, with Wozniak, they did.
So Gibson looks at patterns and processes that might just have similar impact. He urges us to look at patterns, perhaps study history, and think about what the customer needs (but what he may not yet want.) And the author offers “8 Steps to Building a Breakthrough” as a strategic starting point:
1. Frame a specific challenge and focus on solving it.
2. Research the subject. Learn from the work of others.
3. Immerse yourself in the problem. Explore possible solutions.
4. Reach a roadblock. Feel the creative frustration.
5. Relax. Detach from the problem. Let it incubate in the unconscious mind.
6. Come to an illuminating insight (or insights) into a big idea – a new combination of thoughts.
7. Build the insight (or insights) into a big idea – a new combination of thoughts
8. Test and validate the new idea – try to make it work.
Drawing on examples from innovation giants like Gutenberg, Jobs, Bezos and Branson, as well as his work with respected innovation companies like Apple, Coca-cola, Volkswagen, and Siemens, Gibson has managed to create a book that actually is a reflection of his subject matter. I would not say it’s a dense read – not something one picks up ad reads start to finish or chapter by chapter – but The 4 Lenses of Innovation is a great think piece, an enjoyable way to move through the creativity and innovation zones, to spark and free productive thinking.