Mike Harlow Portfolio - Solution Innovation

Few things today carry the buzz of ‘innovation’ and ‘creative genius’. While a lone genius lead character is great for selling books and movies, the truth is that there is an innovation process and anyone can leverage it.

I'm not dismissing the importance of highly innovative people and teams, but want to highlight a key thing they do. They combine and recombine existing knowledge, ideas and inventions from diverse disciplines and fields.

For a relevant example, look no further than the iconic Steve Jobs and Apple. Did Apple invent the MP3 player? The smart phone? The App store? The online music store? No. These inventions not only existed, but were already in widespread use. What Apple did was combine and recombine these technologies and ideas in new and better ways that in hindsight seem obvious. Now that we have a great smart phone in most of our pockets, the innovation question becomes, what are the new opportunities?

Welcome to the 'adjacent possible'.

Stuart Kauffman coined the powerful term the ‘adjacent possible’ to explain improvements in biological systems. He observed that there are always possibilities in every system, but they are limited by the existing biological diversity and environment. Biological systems have a foundation of previous improvements and leverage the integration and adaptation opportunities available in the environment to create new innovative organisms and systems.

More recently, Steven Johnson borrowed the term 'adjacent possible' to describe human innovation. Like biological evolution, he provided an example of the simple 'grape press' (for faster wine production) morphing into the revolutionary 'printing press' that kick-started the information age. Each idea building upon the previous and combining opportunities from others in the environment until a radical new invention was realized.

There is one thing we all need to be careful of. The new theme of 'adjacent' innovation can be easy to confuse with simple 'incremental' continuous improvement. The printing press is not a better grape press. The iPhone is not a better flip phone. It's not about incremental improvement (although that is important too), it's about combining what exists in new and creative ways to achieve radical recombinations.

Although some people and environments are naturally more innovative, I think that any group can be more innovative with a a good understanding of what innovation is. Based on the 'adjacent possible', I have a built a list of rules that help drive innovation in any project. You can try these with your teams and initiatives and if you would like to discuss innovation, feel free to contact me it's one of my favorite subjects.

	Clearly Communicate 'Why': The purpose for your project or initiative is fundamental to the thinking and activity alignment of team members. With a good 'why' your team will be energized and persevere in finding a great and creative 'how'.
	Create space to innovate: Put too much focus on defined tasks and deadlines and you will miss opportunities to see what others in similar fields are doing and to explore and try new ways to do things better.
	Build diverse teams: There’s an old saying, ‘if we both always agree, one of us is redundant’. Seek creative people with diverse experience and that voice opinions. Studies prove, small increases in team diversity yield big increases in innovation
	The best idea wins: All good ideas are worth fighting for and should be able to withstand scrutiny. Present, discuss and build on ideas, but regardless of where they come from, when the best idea emerges, get behind it.
	Avoid rigid hierarchies: Diverse ideas come from everywhere. Power hierarchies limit thinking to the top layers of an organization. Opportunities are lost when people with diverse experience and viewpoints aren’t free to suggest, question or scrutinize.
	Criticism is easy, ideas are hard: Create an environment where ideas are vetted, discussed openly and elaborated. Shut down harsh criticism, and focus observations on refining ideas through candid but respectful conversation.
	Find and recognize sources of contribution: Nothing stops the sharing of ideas faster than someone taking credit for someone else’s thinking. Build a culture of individual and group recognition pointed directly at the true contributors.
	Try and test options: The creative process often results in alternative options or ideas that are hard to validate. If the direction is not clear, find a low cost way to test options, gather feedback, adapt and drive the best ideas to the surface.
	Explore the spaces in between: By nature the adjacent possible is a gap between A (today), and B (a better future). The only way from A to B is by covering the space between. Take time to understand the gap and make sure ideas are executable.