Frans Johansson - Innovation at the Intersection of Unexpected Things
On April 3rd, participants of the Business Innovation Factory's workshop on innovation learned how to create their own 'intersection.' Presenter Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, offered an inspired day of learning at the intersection - a place where "ideas from different fields and cultures meet and collide, igniting an explosion of extraordinary new discoveries." To get there, you need two things: passion and diversity.
Johansson opened the day with an odd pairing. He recounted the meeting of a telecommunications engineer and an ecologist, or as he says, "ants and truck drivers." At this intersection, a knowledge transfer took place with unintended consequence. When the ecologist explained how ants and other social insects search for food, the engineer applied that biological process to the problem of routing telecom messages. "Out of that meeting came an entirely new field of study called swarm intelligence," Johansson explained.
Diversity Drives Innovation
Under the theme "Diversity Drives Innovation," the 2-part workshop focused first on how to come up with ideas (passion is critical) and then, how to make those ideas happen (diversity is key). To get from here to there, you also need a good deal of curiosity, intrigue, trust, teamwork and experimentation. Surprisingly, what you don't need are deep pockets.
Through a series of small group exercises, participants were given a host of tools to help develop the clash of idea combinations necessary for breakthrough innovation. One such tool is called 'assumption reversal.'
Say you want to open a new restaurant. What are the necessary components? At base level, you need a menu, you need to charge for the food and you need to serve the food. Now reverse the assumptions within those three areas. What if you didn't have a menu? What if you didn't charge for food? What if you didn't serve food? This exercise forced participants to really challenge the assumptions of their intended goal. By decoupling from expectation, you begin to start thinking outside the core business model. "It purposefully breaks down barriers," said Johansson.
Takeaways
How do you harness the intersection? Important takeaways from the workshop included:
- All new ideas are combinations of existing ideas.
- Passion is critical. Only with inspiration will we dare to explore connections.
- Breakthrough innovation requires depth and breadth. No single person, or homogeneous group, can have both.
- Diverse teams will see the same thing differently which provides entry into a variety of points of view. If you let it, this diversity will drive disruptive innovation and new business models.
- Diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams every time. Frans presented some interesting research in this area.
- Always challenge assumptions. You may have a hard time questioning your resolve, but the rest of the world does not.
- Make time for the pit stop. Breaking away from established networks solves many of the problems associated with execution.
- Plan for failure. The time between idea and realization is riddled with mistakes and setbacks. Planning for failure will allow you to maintain your passion for the idea yet also accept the inevitable change in outcome. It will also leave you open to a change in course.
Workshop Quotes
"Frans combined his own passionate style with forehead-slapping logic to cement what we have all known and maybe failed to implement: Six people in a room with the same perspective is not a six person review. It’s really a one person review that costs six times as much and produces one-sixth of desired expectations."
- Jim Lavoie, CEO, Rite-Solutions
"The workshop was excellent. I learned many new ideas on how to get diverse stakeholder and non-stakeholder groups involved in problem solving that could lead to the development of new market opportunities. This workshop went beyond thinking 'outside-of-the box' by recognizing that innovation is really multi-disciplinary. I would recommend this workshop to anyone with an interest in improving the culture of their organization."
- Edward Mazze, BIF Research Advisor and Distinguished University Professor of Business Administration at the University of Rhode Island.
"Frans's ideas on how to create and manage diverse teams is something we can put to work right away in our business - to develop our company's strategy but also to foster innovation for our clients in their communities. The association technique of bringing totally different things together, and thinking about new ideas formed at the intersection, gave me specific ideas on how to drive more innovative product development within our the communities for our clients..."
- Clare Robinson, SVP, Client Services, Communispace Corporation
