The Metaphors of Innovation
Pop, soul or free style?
(Inspired by Don’t Spill the Drinks: A New Metaphor for Design Thinking, by E.Louise Larson)
In 2020, I decided that life can be more inward and lighter. From my long-time inspiration Maria Popova on the art of Unselfish Understanding, experience should be spoken AND heard in order to be real. So I took some time off from discussing ontology of sports to listening to the music of innovation. (Original piece of Brain Picking here.)
If innovation can be categorised using the genres of music, 2019 Wrapped was a playlist you can’t figure out the next song when you hit Shuffle.
(Quick note: This is “my” playlist, so the songs were saved based on my 20+ engagements last year in the realm of innovation, which includes learning & development, consultancy & rapporteur work.)
In pop culture, you’re doing a lot of good things out there. You are constantly engaging with a big pool of audience. It looks a bit like an (innovation) theatre. While you’re asked why you thought of doing this in the first place, most commonly a design thinking workshop, you answer “because others did.”
Innovation has values.
When you fill up your business model canvas, there is a reason why unique value proposition is in the centre of the canvas. It’s because first and foremost, each innovation should deliver values to the end users, in the case of workshops, the learners. Many times, we walked into the learning hall, with a lot of confused faces who were not sure the reasons for them to be there. Top-down decision is another killer (for all the fun) and it hinders the delivery of the (right) values to the learners. Because after all, how do you know they need innovation? And if they really need it, why do you think it’s design thinking that could save the day?
Against popular belief, innovation can’t be ignited like fire, anytime, anywhere by anyone. As you ask for two hours to understand design thinking, it’s purely an introduction to a field so wide, so deep that takes years for you to grow the mindset. After all, learning the tool, mastering the processes, creating solutions with a people-first mindset do not come overnight.
Innovation is a discipline.
Soul true? To start innovating is easy, as long as you have the capital to get things going. Purpose is the one thing that could get people to hustle with you, dig deep and manoeuvre on slippery slope. The soul of innovation needs more than executing with agile methodology or SCRUM framework. In fact, while companies or teams claimed that they use agile, we see a paradoxical implementation that forces the innovation team to use agile methodology. To gulp down design thinking is the same as swallowing agile. You need to feed yourself food when you’re hungry, drink when you’re thirsty. You need to know the types of innovation you’re producing before deciding on a management tool. The end goal matters too.
If you know how and what to measure based on your goal, it’s going to be easier to monitor and feedback on the changes. You need feedback because to improve your innovative output, you can apply an iterative cycle to at least meet the sweet spot of innovation (desirability, viability and feasibility).
I know that at this point I sound like giving parental advisory. Trust me I still do a lot of free styles these days, but learning through mistakes on different platforms (coaching, training, facilitating, consulting, writing), I put up my hand and vouch for hybridity.
Having a soul is not enough, you need audience to buy in. Too much ad libs can be very distracting, you need to respect the composers and at least hit those notes.
Here is the kind of music I feel for, and it was a companion for When They See Us, the series on Central Park Five by Ana Duvernay. It hits home because the music has a storyline that gets amplified every time it plays.
This is to writing more purposefully and having more fun in creating your own tracks in 2020.
Bella Ciao! (I’m quite sure the paddy field workers in the 19th century and the anti-fascist protesters during the Italitan Resistance would not expect this to be popularised by La Casa De Papel in 2017.)
I write as a reflective practice, for fun and to learn, outside of academic writing, first year into my postgraduate in sport for development. I enjoy sports and chill watching Netflix mostly when I’m awake but not working.
