Innovation Considered, One More Time

The term innovation continues to be so widely used that many of us have probably resorted to ignoring it. Still, it is more than likely that the word is here to stay. We’re going to keep on hearing it! The question remains since the world refuses to drop this term, do we want to give it one more chance? Can we gain a working understanding of it after all this time?

As I think about persuading you to consider this concept once more, I imagine a situation in which you are trying to convince a skeptical friend to give a restaurant or a movie you like a second chance. In this scenario, you are assured of the film’s greatness or the restaurant’s excellence and you want your friend to get past their negative first encounter. You don’t want your friend to miss out!

So, let’s start with a definition. In the business world innovation is a solution to a human need that is different from anything tried before. It is often the result of applying a systematic process, referred to as “design thinking.” In other words, innovation is not something that suddenly occurs to someone, like a fully-formed idea in the spur of the moment. So we should keep innovation and invention distinct. They are not synonyms, and you don’t need to be Einstein to be an innovator. While the application of technology in the formation of possible solutions does indeed represent an essential aspect of the design thinking process, you don’t have to develop a life-changing invention to be an innovator.

Let’s consider the design thinking process a little bit more. It is best to see it in terms of a “mindset.” Well, now you may be asking, what’s a mindset? To me a mindset is created by developing one’s ability to pay attention in a certain way, it’s a manner of disciplining our minds to think self-consciously.

Design thinking, then, is a mindset. And once a mindset is established, one can apply methods and tools to achieve an end in keeping with it.

Innovators develop a design thinking mindset first and then, almost by force of nature, they apply the design thinking process – with its methods and tools – to product development, to a service, or to a particular solution.

As I see it, the best way to define the design thinking mindset is by describing its dimensions.

Let’s start with the Human Dimension. This is about developing the ability to look at the world with genuine curiosity and discover the needs and difficulties faced by people in every aspect of their lives. To accomplish this, you have to train yourself to be a compassionate observer. It is not enough to see; you have to care.

Compassion means “accompanying another through his pain.” Imagine that you are a designer attempting to develop a better experience for hospitalized children, or a new device to improve miners’ visibility. No matter the field of expertise or subject of study, it’s not just a job. You have to care enough to put yourself in the place of the users. Observe their environments as carefully as possible to experience the needs they describe to you and discover other difficulties they may have gotten accustomed to and failed to express.

Next, there’s the Technical Dimension. This dimension involves having a general understanding that there are or there may be knowledge and technologies already in existence that can be potentially applied to resolve human needs and improve our lives. I am not suggesting that you attempt to learn everything there is to know about everything. Still, innovators are usually thirsty for new knowledge, even when it brings them to question the things they already know and opens a space in their minds for the ambiguous and the unresolved. To be willing to learn about technologies and their applications is to be open to going on a journey that doesn’t necessarily follow a straight line.

It is also worth mentioning that while innovative thinking as a mindset occurs at the individual level, the design thinking process is hardly a one-person job. Its application benefits significantly from individual contributions from diverse fields of knowledge and technical expertise.

Finally, we have the Business Dimension. The innovative thinker understands that for a solution, product, or service to be made widely available and reach the most significant possible number of individuals in need, it still has to make business-sense. It is the potential of being successfully commercialized that enables the pursuit of an innovative solution.

A note on balance. It is probably evident to you at this moment that, in order for the design thinking process to be successful, one dimension should not dominate another. We must not allow the business dimension to suffocate innovation with targets and deadlines, or our passion for the technical dimension to make us look for a solution so complex that it becomes infeasible. The human dimension often provides groundedness to the process by keeping the focus on the user’s needs. Simultaneously, the innovator’s mind hovers over each dimension while designing and testing solutions until one that balances all three manifests itself.

By: The Ana Lovera Inc and Sourcing Values Editorial Team. Copyright 2022.

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