Saturday April 23, 2011

Ideas in the making

Review by THEAN LEE CHENG

The Myths of Innovation

Author: Scott Berkun

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

IN the classic tale of Post-it Notes, Arthur Fry at American conglomerate 3M unintentionally created a weak glue. He did not throw it away but kept it around for years and wondered what it might be good for. Periodically, he would ask friends and colleagues whether it could be useful.

Years later, a friend needed some sticky paper for his music notations. And the bright yellow Post-it Notes was born.

And 3M? Formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co, the company's original business was mining stones from quarries. Today, the American conglomerate is known as the maker of a variety of adhesives, besides other products.

The story of Arthur Fry and his weak glue, and many other scientists and innovative geniuses, set the backdrop for Scott Berkun's book, The Myths of Innovation. But Berkun's book is not limited to just inventions. There is, of course, Thomas Edison and his light bulb, Einstein and gravity, Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press and Marie Curie who discovered radiation, but Berkun also brings in some of the greatest architecture the world has today. He writes about the Taj Mahal of India, Paris' Eiffel Tower and Roman architecture.

Of course, there is also Bill Gates of Microsoft, one of the richest man in the world, and since the book is on innovations, creativity and ideas, who can leave out Steve Jobs who gave us the iPhone and iPad.

What strings all these people, products and places together is not just inventions. Instead, Berkun's book is a collection of thought-provoking questions on the origins and source of ideas, how creativity and opportunities help us to turn those ideas into innovation that changes the way we live. He writes about the importance of hard work, that the iPhone and the light bulb did not appear with just the first try, but many attempts.

WD-40 is named thus because of the 40 attempts it took to get it right and Dr Paul Ehrlich's cure for syphilis, called Salvarsan 606, was similarly named. Picasso used eight notebooks to explore the ideas for just one of his paintings, Guernica.

Berkun focuses on the origins and source of ideas, how ideas evolve over time giving rise to new products along the way. But he also writes about the millions of ideas that come to nought because not enough time and focus were given to them.

Ideas do not come in neat little packages. Real creation is sloppy, discovery is messy, exploration is dangerous and no one knows that one is going to get when one is being creative.

But “the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas,” he writes.

The origins of ideas are born when a child enters this world. The horizon is before him and as the saying goes, the world is his oyster because each of us, says Berkun, is born with a certain amount of creativity. As a child, each of us invents games to entertain ourselves. Some of us are lucky enough to have Lego sets. Children born in another time and location may have just sand to play with, or water to play with, and they create games out of whatever they have.

Because time is on their hands, they focus on the games and create other games to entertain themselves and their little friends. As they grow up, other distractions come into the picture and their focus is taken off their imagination and what it can produce. They learn to follow rules and regulations and think as the person sitting next to them.

We begin to conform to what is right and wrong and along the way, our imagination and creativity are not given a chance to grow, Berkun writes.

Our imagination plays an important part in generating ideas. Our perseverance and ability to bring these ideas to fruition result in what others call creativity. And if each of us were to focus enough attention of what interests us, and in accordance with the environment and time we live in, creativity and being innovative can well be a part of our life.

“The trouble is, very often, we think there is a magic moment, or a Eureka! moment. There isn't.” he writes.

Very often, when geniuses are interviewed about the invention, they are asked - How did you start?

All of us know how or when that magical moment came about. The truth is, there is no magical moment. Just a lot of hard work, perseverance and a passion for whatever it is that caught our attention.

Imagine this. Had Steve Jobs been born in medieval France, what would have been the outcome? How would his “magic” work in that environment, in those times?

“Acknowledging the uncontrollable factors helps divorce us from worshipping the details of our heroes' achievements. Studying history grants power, but only when we overcome romance and see innovators as humans, just like us, with similar limitations and circumstancial influences,” he writes.

According to Berkun, ideas are everywhere. But the life of ideas is bigger than what happens in brainstorming sessions. The best idea-finding sessions in the world are useless if that creative energy does not go anywhere. Ideas, says Berkun, don't do much. It's what's done with them that matters. Are they funded? Encouraged? Used to reinvent and rethink? Given time to grow?

Our environment matters. Our workplace, the way spaces take shape in offices and teams work together, does it allow ideas to be more than just ideas?

Berkun goes beyond just what is behind an idea and how it comes about. He also writes about the importance of measuring innovation, what he calls the goodness scale. Is this innovation good for society, is it good for all time?

Much of his book also delves into history and he puts a high premium on the past because our present and our future, to some extend, is a result of the past.

“The best philosophy of innovation is to accept both cange and tradition, and to avoid the traps of the absolutes. As ridiculous as it is to accept all new ideas simply because they are new, it is equally silly to accept all traditions simply because they are traditions,” he writes.

The book encourages readers to take a simple step towards contributing to society's good with their ingenuity. Pick a project and start doing something. It is no use saying you want to do something, do it! he challenges. The next step is to forget about innovation (remember, there is no magic moment!). Instead, focus on being good and if you work with others, you need leadership and trust. If you work with others and things are not doing well, do not give up. Make the team smaller and be happy about “interesting” mistakes.

Unlike the geniuses and innovators who gave us all sorts of products which changed our lives, many of us do not give time and motivation to the seeds of ideas that form. We get distracted and move on, leaving our ideas or motivation to wither by the wayside. Soon, the moment of enchantment is gone. So do not let that enthusiam dim.

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Saturday April 23, 2011

Ideas in the making

Review by THEAN LEE CHENG