The key elements for innovation - Basic principles

Exploration and Curiosity are the key elements for innovation

Innovation in core is an idea, a product or a solution to a problem that is essentially positive and new in nature and primarily far away from the common alternatives. As such like intelligence innovation cannot be measured, but to make a sense of what innovation is, some subjective categorization of innovative solution has been made.

For me innovation can happen anywhere—an exclamation, a joke or a new solution at home that nobody else thought. Innovative mindset abounds around us. I am routinely surprised by the inventive little solutions that my neighbor does time and again. In informal discussions insights sometimes strike me as totally new.  Basic ingredient of innovative thinking is thinking new. Important is the innovative mindset. Without innovative mindset innovation cannot happen.

Innovation is newness, only degree of novelty varies.  And not all innovations reach a stage of maturity that can be appreciated or used by many. Amongst various reasons, one important reason for innovation dying prematurely is: only innovative idea is not enough; post idea generation apparently not so hallowed stages of development, marketing, sales and distribution all come in as necessary elements for fruition of the innovative idea.

Interestingly, a common belief is: amongst the two elements of Research & Development, innovation is solely owned by Research. A few of the leading companies of the world have rightly identified that innovation is to be made a necessary ingredient of every function that contributes to the stages of a product life cycle: from idea generation in research to HR functions.

In competitive world innovation provides the leading edge. National innovation content of countries and organizations is talked about, plans are made, projects are taken up and lots of money spent to systematically increase the innovation content.

Innovation is highly talked about, intensely pursued, but remains largely illusive as far as a sure shot path to it is concerned.

In this space we will talk about innovation in general and a few basic principles of innovation. It is believed that these are some of the important principles that aid innovation. There may be overlap of these set of principles with basic principles of real life problem solving. It is understandable, as innovation can be seen as a special type of problem solving.

Along other threads we will cover a few of the more established well-formed methodologies or systems of innovative problem solving.

Basic Principles of Innovative Problem Solving

1: Explore:

Explore For new ideas, new choices and new paths towards solution. This is a primary principle of problem solving; unless you have curiosity about why a specific problem is happening, how can you solve the problem? Whatever be the method, exploration only opens up in front of you new avenues of solution that you never imagined earlier.

Exploration is primarily fueled by curiosity; about properties of things, about behavior of objects and persons and so on. Many inventions took place because of consuming curiosity. Examples are many, in fact too many.

Velcro® Inventor - George De Mestral

It is reported that De Mestral got the idea for Velcro® from cockleburs caught in his clothes and his dog’s fur. In 1948, during a walk in the woods, Swiss engineer De Mestral caught hundreds of burrs in his clothes and his dog’s fur. He could pull them off with great difficulty. He wondered how they could get attached themselves so tenaciously!

De Mestral went on to observe the burrs under a microscope. He saw that each was covered with hooks that looked like evil looking spiked fangs. These hooked onto anything that had a loop—clothing fiber, animal fur, or human hair. The common burr was a natural “hook and loop fastener.” De Mestral realized he could create a fabric fastener that acted like the burrs, and thus the idea of Velcro® was born. After getting rid of the burrs with a lot of pains, most other people would have heaved a sigh of relief, but not De Mistral. He continued along the path of exploration that begun with his close observation of the special nature of the burrs.

Today Velcro® is everywhere. It’s used in sneakers, backpacks, jackets, wallets, watchbands, and children’s toys. It turns up in most unusual places. Velcro helped to hold a human heart together during the first artificial-heart surgery. NASA uses Velcro® to keep equipment from floating about in U.S. space shuttles, and on the insides of space helmets so that astronauts have a rough surface to scratch their itchy noses and chins. 

Kevlar® Inventor - Stephanie Kwolek

Kwoleks habit was to experiment with chemical solutions. Her belief: “All sorts of things can happen when you’re open to new ideas and playing around with things.”
One of the few women chemists at DuPont in the 1960s, Stephanie Kwolek’s work led to the development of Kevlar, a fiber best known for its use in bullet-resistant vests.

Kwolek’s research at the DuPont Textile Lab included experimenting with long molecules called polymers in order to develop lightweight, heat-resistant fibers. In 1965, while trying to dissolve one of the polymers, something strange happened. 

Ordinarily a polymer solution looks like molasses, although it may not be as thick. And it’s generally transparent. This polymer solution poured almost like water, and it was cloudy. Kwolek caught on the oddity and started her exploration from that point on.

Convinced that this unusual solution could be spun into fibers, Kwolek persuaded her colleagues to spin it and test its physical properties. To their amazement the fiber was tested to be immensely strong, stiff, and yet lightweight. It took six years to develop the final product commercially.

Kevlar® is very light but stiff and immensely strong. It is much stronger than steel. And it’s chemical and flame resistant. Today Kevlar® is used in boat hulls, bullet-resistant vests, cut-resistant gloves, fiber-optic cables, firefighters’ and lumberjacks’ suits, helmets, tires, sporting equipment.

Kwolek’s ability to recognize possibilities where others did not is a quality that she shares with many inventors. This ability to see non-obvious connections and relationships often leads inventors to the key insight that is the basis for their invention. Sometimes it seems as if the inventor had a flash of inspiration or a “Eureka!” moment. But often these instances are examples of a lifetime habit, begun in childhood, of curiosity, exploration, and refusal to give up at the first sign of failure.

Would you like to see beyond the horizon? Okay, then you already have the basic resource to become an inventor.


Read my main blog on Innovation & Problem Solving and the other related blog on Innovation - Basic Principles