Too often we think of innovation as a set of rules, which, if followed, will yield some tidy product or service. The reality is that innovations are more than a process- they’re the breech offspring of astute observation, brought into the world on the verge of being strangled by dulled, but aggressive perceptions and preconceptions.
An old, entrepreneur boss of mine boasted of being able to visit manufacturing plants and “steal with his eyes.” He was the epitome of what Swiss theologian, Johann Kaspar Lavater, described when he opined:“He alone is an acute observer, who can observe minutely without being observed.”
My boss’s goal was not to copy something directly but to mentally catalogue what he saw – knowing that when the situation was right, he would subconsciously or even consciously, use what he saw as a springboard to something better.
We see, smell, touch, taste, and hear constantly but we are trained to ignore most of it as it gets in the way of ‘being productive.’ Yet, intense observational skills run in the bloodlines of innovators beginning with the very first humans.
Everyone looked at the heavens. Yet, before even the dawn of the telescope, only a few observed that there were ‘wanderers’ among the stars: the planets.
Everyone saw birds flying, but the Wright brothers observed and gave birth to the airplane.
As Yogi Berra was purported to have said: ”You can observe a lot just by watching.”
Watching is more than light hitting our retinas. It is seeing with the knowledge and predisposition that there is something wonderfully unique about what we are witnessing at this point in time. It is cataloguing occurring at the locus of the senses during an observational moment.
I remember many years ago I was tasked with designing a new locking mechanism for interventional drainage catheters. (These are minimally invasive catheters that are used to drain cysts in the liver, or kidneys. The locking mechanism keeps the catheter from coming out of the body during the treatment time.) The current locking mechanisms all had mechanical keys or switches that would lock the catheter in place.
As I was watching a procedure I noticed Read the rest of this entry »
