Well I had a couple of posts in similar topics last year..... I found something interesting again... so am shring it here....
Earlier posting:
Think errr outside the box n circle n triangle ....
Being part of the innovation business has shown me that the best innovators aren’t lone geniuses. They’re people who can take an idea that’s obvious in one context and apply it in not-so-obvious ways to a different context. The best companies have learned to systematize that process. Cool haan!
Ok! now read on:
Ask any CEO in the world to write a top-five wish list, and we guarantee that “more ideas—better ideas!” will show up in some form. Most likely it’ll be right at the top. CEOs know that ideas and innovation are the most precious currency in the new economy—and increasingly in the old economy as well. Without a constant flow of ideas, a business is condemned to obsolescence.
Results of study
The best of these innovators have systematized the generation and testing of new ideas—and the system they’ve devised can be replicated practically anywhere, because it has everything to do with organization and attitude and very little to do with nurturing solitary genius.
Two big things:
The first is that the best innovators systematically use old ideas as the raw materials for one new idea after another. We call their strategy knowledge brokering; companies that do it serve as intermediaries, or brokers, between otherwise disconnected pools of ideas. They use their in-between vantage point to spot old ideas that can be used in new places, new ways, and new combinations.
Taking an idea that’s commonplace in one area and moving it to a context where it isn’t common at all is not a new way to spark creativity, of course!
The history of technological innovation is filled with examples. The steam engine, for one, was used in mines for 75 years before Robert Fulton thought deeply about the original innovation, wondered how it could be used to propel boats, and developed the first commercial steamboat. Nobody had done what Fulton had with that particular local, specific knowledge: he made the leap of applying it to the altogether different problem of powering boats and implemented it in a way that was accepted by the marketplace.
Well, I found the knowledge-brokering cycle interesting.
It’s made up of four intertwined work practices:
capturing good ideas,
keeping ideas alive,
imagining new uses for old ideas,
and putting promising concepts to the test.
By: A. Hargadon and R.I. Sutton from HBR
Earlier posting:
Think errr outside the box n circle n triangle ....
Being part of the innovation business has shown me that the best innovators aren’t lone geniuses. They’re people who can take an idea that’s obvious in one context and apply it in not-so-obvious ways to a different context. The best companies have learned to systematize that process. Cool haan!
Ok! now read on:
Ask any CEO in the world to write a top-five wish list, and we guarantee that “more ideas—better ideas!” will show up in some form. Most likely it’ll be right at the top. CEOs know that ideas and innovation are the most precious currency in the new economy—and increasingly in the old economy as well. Without a constant flow of ideas, a business is condemned to obsolescence.
Results of study
The best of these innovators have systematized the generation and testing of new ideas—and the system they’ve devised can be replicated practically anywhere, because it has everything to do with organization and attitude and very little to do with nurturing solitary genius.
Two big things:
The first is that the best innovators systematically use old ideas as the raw materials for one new idea after another. We call their strategy knowledge brokering; companies that do it serve as intermediaries, or brokers, between otherwise disconnected pools of ideas. They use their in-between vantage point to spot old ideas that can be used in new places, new ways, and new combinations.
Taking an idea that’s commonplace in one area and moving it to a context where it isn’t common at all is not a new way to spark creativity, of course!
The history of technological innovation is filled with examples. The steam engine, for one, was used in mines for 75 years before Robert Fulton thought deeply about the original innovation, wondered how it could be used to propel boats, and developed the first commercial steamboat. Nobody had done what Fulton had with that particular local, specific knowledge: he made the leap of applying it to the altogether different problem of powering boats and implemented it in a way that was accepted by the marketplace.
Well, I found the knowledge-brokering cycle interesting.
It’s made up of four intertwined work practices:
capturing good ideas,
keeping ideas alive,
imagining new uses for old ideas,
and putting promising concepts to the test.
By: A. Hargadon and R.I. Sutton from HBR