Creativity Central [Marty Baker]

Innovation has become an important  part of nearly every company's lexicon.  But in a fuzzy logic world, innovation doesn't equal success.  In many cases, innovation steers a company in a decidedly unprofitable direction. 

And when innovation has potential, it is often dismissed because it doesn't fit conventional thinking.  Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were turned down by Alta Visa and Yahoo when they presented their "page rank" ideas. Star Wars was turned down by virtually every major studio.  Western Union didn't think Alexander Graham Bell's invention had merit.

So, innovation is a double-edge sword. 

I believe that individuals and companies need to see innovation as an amazingly complex system.  It means not focusing on the innovation to the exclusion of what makes that innovation a success.  It's the mindset that hiring engineers isn't enough.  You need sales, marketing, accountants to be owners of the project from the beginning.

Innovation vs. the comfort zone.  Innovation asks for faith in something unknown over something known to be safe and expected.   This creates an unfortunate paradox -- "the greater the potential of an idea, the harder it is to find anyone willing to try it."  Scott Berkun's book "The Myths of Innovation" has tremendous insights into why innovation is so misunderstood.

Cut to:  The Twilight Zone.  In one episode, a successful businessman is bored with life because he's accomplished everything.  He strikes a deal with a female devil to go back to the 19th Century to rebuild his success from scratch. He knows the location of an incredible oil field and buys the land cheaply.  The problem is that he can't get to the oil because the oil drilling equipment hasn't been invented yet. He is unable to duplicate his success because technology lagged behind his knowledge.  Innovation needs to be part of a system to adopt and support it.

For example, the concept of broadband was understood long before cable was able to deliver it.  Now that it has been made viable, it has changed the way customers buy music, movies and download programs. But many innovations are  are behind the adoption curve.  Either they aren't economically feasible or there isn't a perceived value in customers embracing the innovation. 

So how do innovations gain faster adoption?  In "Diffusion of Innovations," Everett Rogers writes:  "Many technologists think that advantageous innovations will sell themselves, that the obvious benefits of a new idea will be widely realized by potential adopters and that the innovation will be diffuse rapidly.  Unfortunately, this is seldom the case.  Most innovations in fact diffuse at a surprisingly slow rate."

Rogers identifies the 5 factors that define how quickly innovations spread:

 1.  Relative advantage.  What value does the innovation have compared to the old?  Perceived advantage is built on factors that include economics, prestige, convenience, fashion and satisfaction.  For example, Apple's Keynote is far superior (and easier to learn) than the omnipresent PowerPoint.  But the critical mass (PCs) and economics make will
make it difficult for Keynote to become the leader. 

 2.  Compatibility.  How much effort is required to move from the current thing to the innovation?  If this cost is greater than the relative advantage, most people won't try the innovation. Roger's describes a Peruvian village that rejected boiling water because of cultural beliefs that hot foods were only for sick people.  Technological compatibility is only part of what makes innovation spread:  the innovation has to be compatible with habits, beliefs, values and lifestyles.

3.  Complexity.  How much learning is required to apply the innovation?  The smaller the perceived conceptual gap, the higher the rate of acceptance.  For example,  Mark Twains love for technology and his background in printing led him to invest in the Paige Compositor.  Between 1880 and 1894 he invested a fortune into its development, resulting in his near bankruptcy. In an 1889 letter to his brother Orion, Twain writes,

"All the other inventions of the human brain sink pretty nearly into commonplaces contrasted with this awful mechanical miracle. Telephones, telegraphs, locomotives, cotton gins, sewing machines, Babbage calculators, Jacquard looms, perfecting presses, Arkwright's frames – all mere toys, simplicities! The Paige Compositor marches alone & far in the lead of human inventions."

 Although the Paige Compositor was faster than the Linotype, its 18,000 parts were prone to malfunction. Paige's invention exhibited superior technological achievement, but its price and temperamental nature made it unattractive to a business world that had already embraced the Linotype.  It was an invention that forced Twain to sell his home and embark on a world tour to pay back his debts.

4.  Trialability.  How easy is it to try or sample the innovation? 

5.  Observability.  How visible are the results of the innovation?  The more visible the perceived advantage, the faster the rate of adoption.   

The best ideas don't  always win the publics heart.   The QWERTY keyboard model is not designed for efficiency  or ergonomics.  It was created because the inventor Christopher Sholes needed a design that wouldn't jam the keys.  And the popular Phillips screw is inferior to the lessor-known (square head) Robertson screw.  

According to Berkun , "As people and companies age, they have more to lose."  They're not willing to spend years chasing dreams or to endanger what they've worked so hard to build.  Attitudes focused on security, risk adversion, and optimization of the status quo eventually become the dominant position.

The lesson here is to bring equal passion to innovation and the art of making that innovation accessible (and valuable) to the public.  So even if you have built the better mouse trap, you may get trapped in virtually any of the scenarios above.  I want to thank Scott Berkun for allowing me to quote liberally from his book -- The Myths of Innovation.  (C) 2007 Scott Berkun.