The Four Lenses of Innovation
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Summary written by: Dianne Coppola
"How do innovators manage to spot the opportunities
for industry revolution that everyone else seems to miss? What is it that
enables them to imagine radically new or different ways of doing things that
will fundamentally change customer expectations and behaviours, or break long
established industry paradigms, or shift the entire basis for competitive
advantage?"
- The 4 Lenses of Innovation, page xiii
If you
are looking for the answers to those questions and more, then you’ll want to
devour Rowan Gibson’s book, The 4 Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool
for Creative Thinking, from cover to cover! Beautifully illustrated with
visuals, stories and examples, Gibson explores the Renaissance past for clues
to creativity and innovation. He converts what he finds into four lenses that
can be used to unleash the innovation capability buried deep within us:
1.
Challenging Orthodoxies – the willingness to question long-held beliefs and
assumptions about the way things are by asking why? and, why not?
2.
Harnessing Trends – noticing emerging developments across different
sectors and disciplines and thinking about how they might alter your present
course of action;
3.
Leveraging Resources – redeploying or recombining skills, assets, ideas
or materials in new and different ways (think Lego blocks!) to create novel
solutions; and,
4.
Understanding Needs – keying in on the frustrations and challenges
facing customers that competitors ignore (often referred to as ‘pain points’ in
business).
Gibson
concludes by describing how big ideas are built and shares a replicable system
for deliberately cultivating innovative ideas from inputs through to outputs
and the infamous “Eureka” moment.
The Golden Egg
You’ve got it In You!
"Once
we accept that creativity is not a birthright of exceptional people but a skill
that can be taught and acquired, we can begin to seriously tap into the latent
innovation potential inside all of us and across our organizations."- The 4 Lenses of Innovation, page 258
Have
you noticed how many people are quick to write themselves off when it comes to
possessing certain traits or talents – like creativity, leadership and bravery?
We’ve all heard someone remark, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body”, “I’m
not leadership material”, or “I wish I was brave like…” (and, be honest, we’ve
said these things ourselves from time to time).
The
fact is, we are capable of doing a lot more than we give ourselves credit for.
It’s simply a lot easier to opt out than it is to opt in and devote the time
and energy required to develop the trait or talent in question. Like anything
in life, if we truly want something, we will find a way to get it. So, if you want
to be more creative and innovative, if you want your employees to
be more creative and innovative, then you have to deliberately focus on
learning and practicing how to become more creative and innovative. And a
great way to do that is to apply Gibson’s four lenses to a challenge or problem
you are currently facing.
Gem #1
Patterns – See Them! Break Them!
"What
the innovators are actually seeing is patterns. They recognize some existing
configuration of things that doesn’t make sense to them (so they want to
question or alter it), or an emerging cluster of trends that has the power to
change the game, or a potential recombination of elements that could create
significant new value, or a repeated pattern of behaviour that reveals a deep
customer need."- The 4 Lenses of
Innovation, page 65
Patterns
can be our best friends and our worst enemies! Due to the massive amount of
inputs and stimuli that surround us, our brain is hard-wired to create and
respond to patterns. We learn how to recognize danger, convert letter
combinations into words and sentences, and interpret road signs. Games like tic
tac toe, checkers and chess are won or lost based on our ability to see and
react to patterns. It’s how we conserve our mental energy for more complex
situations.
However,
the downside to creating and using patterns is that we eventually stop paying
attention to them. We do things ‘on auto-pilot’ without thinking, never
questioning if that is the best way to do something. This behaviour even has a
name – functional fixedness – “a kind of mental block that limits us to
understanding and using the things around us only in the traditional ways we
have learned.”
Ideas
are nothing more than a pattern of thoughts arranged in a particular way. New
ideas form when people generate different patterns or combinations of thoughts
that suggest a more exciting or better course of action. Successful innovators
are willing to disrupt the patterns that the rest of us have become complacent
about.
So,
here’s where you can have a little fun. Look for patterns in the things you do
daily and see if you can break them apart like Lego blocks then put them back
together in a different way. Change up the route you drive to work, use
different ingredients in your salads or sandwiches, rearrange the furniture in
your living room or den! Once you’ve shaken up these ‘safe’ routines, you can
look for opportunities to experiment with bigger operational issues and
challenges.
Gem #2
Sow and You will Reap
"You
can’t produce big, breakthrough ideas unless you first generate the right kinds
of insights."- The 4 Lenses of Innovation, page 250
Gibson
describes an insight as “something you previously didn’t know, or
didn’t yet think about, that has the power to surprise and inspire you.” We
might call them ‘ahhh moments’; times when we suddenly see or
experience something that suggests a solution to a problem we are struggling
with. Insights are the directional arrows that point the way to new ideas.
Unfortunately,
our innovation processes too often rely on poorly managed brainstorming
sessions. We review data the way we’ve always reviewed data (recall the peril
of patterns). We settle for incremental improvements and familiar solutions
instead of big bold changes. Gibson promises we will generate more meaningful
insights and ideas if our data and brainstorming is fueled by his four lenses
of innovation.
Give
people permission to challenge the status quo. Explore the implications of
emergent trends and combine your resources and assets in different ways.
Approach unfulfilled customer needs from different angles. Try asking different
questions and bring different people into your brainstorming and problem
solving sessions. Use flip chart paper, crayons and yes, Lego blocks, to stimulate
playful experimentation. If you want a different result, you have to do
business differently!
Gibson
has written a highly engaging book that outlines a systematic, proven method
for developing and sustaining a more innovative culture within teams,
organizations and communities. He explains the theories that underpin the four
lenses of innovation and shares real-life examples of those principles in
action. His methodology isn’t rocket science – it’s immensely do-able. All it
takes is a commitment to using the four lenses to see challenges and
opportunities differently.
You
don’t have to land a job at Google, Amazon, Zappos, or Facebook to unleash the
innovator that resides within you. You do have to turn off your auto-pilot and
turn on your childlike curiosity about the world around you. Are you ready to
start your own innovation renaissance?
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