Creativity and Innovation Aren't Exactly What You Think They Are
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of Mastery, Richard Cox Braden, a Stanford D school instructor, shares insights on creativity and innovation. Debunking myths, he emphasizes that innovation is accessible to everyone and not just the domain of geniuses. Braden discusses six key mindsets crucial for innovation and the importance of embracing ambiguity and learning from failure. He advocates for a culture that encourages incremental progress and highlights the role of creative leadership in fostering an innovative environment.
Takeaways
- 📚 Richard Braden's upcoming book 'Innovation' aims to make innovation accessible to everyone by debunking myths and providing a framework for understanding and applying creativity and innovation.
- 🧠 Braden emphasizes that creativity and innovation are not exclusive to certain individuals or roles, but are inherent in everyone, and can be cultivated through practice and mindset shifts.
- 🎨 Creativity is defined as using imagination to solve problems, while innovation involves applying creativity to create something new and bringing it into existence.
- 🤔 Braden identifies six key mindsets crucial for innovation: Interactions, Insights, Ideas, Iterations, Inspiration, and Implications, each focusing on different aspects of the innovation process.
- 🌐 Interactions involve engaging with the world and learning from others, while Insights involve synthesizing information to understand problems deeply.
- 💡 The Ideas mindset encourages generating a multitude of ideas, with the understanding that not all will be successful, but the process of ideation is essential.
- 🔄 Iterations involve testing ideas and being open to feedback and adjustments, highlighting the importance of flexibility and adaptability in the innovation process.
- 📈 Inspiration is about storytelling and enacting narratives to engage others in the innovation process, emphasizing the role of communication in gaining support and collaboration.
- 🔮 The Implications mindset focuses on considering the potential consequences of innovations, both intended and unintended, to ensure responsible and thoughtful innovation.
- 🚀 Braden encourages leaders to foster an innovation culture by embracing ambiguity, rewarding experimentation and failure as part of the learning process, and empowering teams to take initiative.
Q & A
What is the main theme of Richard Braden's upcoming book 'Innovation'?
-The main theme of Richard Braden's book 'Innovation' is to make innovation accessible to everyone by debunking myths about innovation and providing insights on how anyone can harness their creativity.
Why does Richard Braden feel sad when he asks a class if they are creative and only a few hands go up?
-Richard Braden feels sad because he knows that everyone is creative, but people often don't recognize or believe in their own creativity due to societal or self-imposed limitations.
What are the six mindsets that Richard Braden identifies as crucial for innovation?
-The six mindsets are interactions, insights, ideas, iterations, inspiration, and implications.
How does Richard Braden define creativity?
-Richard Braden defines creativity as the use of one's imagination to solve a problem, which is more inclusive than just creating a work of art.
What is the difference between creativity and innovation as explained by Richard Braden?
-Creativity is the use of imagination to solve problems, while innovation is applying creativity to create something new to the world and making it exist, often involving entrepreneurship.
How does Richard Braden describe the process of innovation in his book?
-Richard Braden describes the process of innovation as one that involves six different mindsets and is not about a single 'Eureka' moment but rather continuous incremental iteration and learning.
What is the role of failure in the innovation process according to Richard Braden?
-According to Richard Braden, failure is a part of the learning process in innovation. It is not something to be celebrated, but it should be seen as a necessary step towards achieving the goal, provided it is not due to routine execution errors.
How can leaders foster innovation within their organizations?
-Leaders can foster innovation by embracing ambiguity, being comfortable with failure as a learning process, and encouraging their teams to take risks and iterate on ideas.
What are some common myths about innovation that Richard Braden addresses in his book?
-Some common myths include the belief in an overnight epiphany, the necessity of being a lone genius, and the idea that innovation only happens in places like Silicon Valley.
What is the importance of storytelling and narrative in the innovation process as discussed by Richard Braden?
-Storytelling and narrative are important in innovation because they help to inspire and enroll others in your vision. It is a way to articulate your idea in a way that makes sense and motivates people to join and support your project.
How does Richard Braden suggest individuals give themselves permission to innovate?
-Richard Braden suggests that individuals should start by innovating within their current work, incorporating small changes and testing ideas without the pressure of having to make a significant impact immediately.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Richard Braden's Insights on Innovation
Richard Braden, an instructor at Stanford D school, discusses his upcoming book 'Innovation' aimed at making innovation accessible to everyone. He emphasizes the importance of creativity in various professional fields and shares his experiences teaching creativity and innovation, highlighting the common misconception that only a select few can be creative. Braden's approach to debunking myths about innovation and creativity involves changing people's definitions and relationships with these concepts.
🚀 Making Innovation Accessible Through Frameworks
The conversation delves into Braden's research on design and innovation frameworks, identifying six key mindsets necessary for innovation. He explains the importance of having a simple view of innovation to utilize various tools effectively. The book 'Innovation' serves as a guide to navigate the vast amount of information available on the subject, helping those who have struggled with innovation to get back on track and reassuring people that they have the capacity to innovate.
🤔 Distinguishing Creativity from Innovation
Braden and the host explore the difference between creativity and innovation, using the framework provided by Professor Tina Seelig. They define imagination as the ability to envision something that doesn't exist, creativity as using imagination to solve problems, and innovation as applying creativity to create something new. Entrepreneurship is presented as the next step, making ideas exist in the world.
🔍 The Role of Design Thinking in Innovation
The discussion highlights design thinking as a structured methodology that encompasses the same set of mindsets as innovation. Braden explains that design thinking is just one of many methodologies and emphasizes the importance of not being locked into a single approach. He encourages exploring various resources and understanding the core principles of design thinking to foster creativity and innovation.
🌟 Cultivating Innovation Mindsets: Interactions and Insights
Braden outlines the first two of the six innovation mindsets: interactions and insights. Interactions involve engaging with the world and learning from others, while insights require synthesizing information to understand problems deeply. He stresses the importance of these mindsets for innovation and suggests that embracing ambiguity and redefining the relationship with failure can help cultivate them.
🔄 Embracing Failure and Encouraging Innovation
The conversation continues with the importance of embracing failure as a part of the innovation process. Braden differentiates between productive failure that leads to learning and unproductive failure that stems from not executing routine tasks. He encourages leaders to foster a culture where failure is seen as an opportunity for growth and innovation.
🛍️ Leadership and Innovation: Case Study of a Luxury Brand
Braden shares a story of a luxury brand CEO who, after learning new innovation tools, allowed his team to experiment with a new approach that contradicted the company's previous stance. The successful outcome of this experiment led to a change in company policy, illustrating the power of leadership in fostering innovation and the importance of being open to new ideas.
💡 Debunking Myths About Innovation
The discussion addresses common myths about innovation, such as the overnight success story and the Eureka moment. Braden emphasizes that innovation is a result of hard work, persistence, and continuous iteration. He encourages people to give themselves permission to innovate and to incorporate innovative practices into their existing work.
🎯 Incremental Innovation and the Role of Humility
Braden suggests that humility is key to embracing incremental innovation. He advises setting realistic expectations and taking small steps towards innovation. The idea is to focus on making continuous improvements rather than aiming for grand, moonshot innovations in every endeavor.
🎶 The Analogy of Music and Innovation
In this segment, Braden draws an analogy between classical and jazz music to explain the different approaches to innovation. Classical music represents a structured and precise process, while jazz symbolizes creativity within a loose framework, allowing for improvisation and collaboration. He relates this to the innovation process, where teams can work together with a shared understanding of objectives to create something new and valuable.
🛠️ Creative Leadership and Enhancing Problem Solving
The final paragraph focuses on the concept of creative leadership, where Braden emphasizes the importance of asking good questions to foster creativity and innovation. He suggests that leaders should encourage their teams to experiment and reflect on their processes, ultimately creating a culture that supports and rewards innovative efforts.
🌈 Conclusion: Innovation for Everyone
In conclusion, Braden reinforces the idea that innovation is accessible to everyone and involves making incremental, intentional changes. He advises listeners not to feel pressured to be the smartest or to have all the answers but to keep moving forward, learning from their attempts, and applying those lessons to future endeavors.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Innovation
💡Creativity
💡Design Thinking
💡Myths
💡Mindsets
💡Imagination
💡Incremental Process
💡Leadership
💡Ambiguity
💡Failure
💡Inspiration
💡Implications
Highlights
Richard Braden, an instructor at Stanford D school, discusses his upcoming book 'Innovation is', aiming to make innovation accessible to everyone.
Braden emphasizes that anyone can be creative and innovative, dispelling the myth that it requires a special genius.
His book outlines six key mindsets necessary for innovation, including interactions, insights, ideas, iterations, inspiration, and implications.
Braden explains the importance of embracing ambiguity and being comfortable with not knowing as part of the innovation process.
He distinguishes creativity as the ability to envision and solve problems, while innovation involves creating something new and bringing it to the world.
Braden discusses the myths about innovation, such as the overnight success story, and stresses the reality of hard work and persistence.
He highlights the need for leaders to foster a culture of innovation by rewarding experimentation and embracing failure as a learning process.
Braden suggests that innovation can be cultivated by starting with simple tools and methodologies, gradually building up to more complex projects.
He emphasizes the importance of storytelling and narrative in inspiring others to join and support innovative projects.
Braden discusses the role of speed in innovation, advocating for intentional and thoughtful progress over mere speed.
He encourages leaders to ask good questions that promote deep thinking and reflection among team members.
Braden shares an example of a CEO who changed his approach to innovation, leading to significant company growth.
He explains how design thinking is one of many methodologies that align with the mindsets necessary for innovation.
Braden stresses that innovation is not an all-or-nothing process and that even small, incremental changes can be impactful.
He advises against waiting for a 'Eureka' moment, instead promoting a continuous, iterative approach to problem-solving.
Braden concludes by reiterating that innovation is for everyone and involves consistently and intentionally moving towards problem-solving.
Transcripts
welcome to another episode of Mastery
talks today we're glad to have Richard
Cox Braden back with us Richard is an
instructor at Stanford D school he's
lecturing at Stanford and Harvard on
design thinking creative leadership and
Innovation Richard's upcoming book
Innovation is promises to make
Innovation accessible to everyone let's
explore his insights on how we can all
harness the power of our creativity
Richard welcome I'm glad let this uh
conversation keeps going on because we
previously hosted Richard in person for
our community at Stanford where we had
an enriching discussion about Innovation
and creative leadership now it's great
to continue this conversation and share
your insights with Mastery talk
listeners Richard you know how we value
your work it's not the first time and we
hope not the last time we are talking
with you and we're thrilled to have you
back with us great I'm I'm really happy
to be here thanks for having me let's
start with your upcoming book Innovation
is what uh inspired you to write this
book and what you hope to achieve with
it yeah so after about almost 20 years
now of teaching creativity and
innovation in a variety of different
ways I had yet to run across a person
who could not do it
CEOs and Executives primary secondary
high school teachers middle managers
college students both undergrads and
grads that I teach lawyers Engineers
Finance marketing some of the best ones
are the primary to high school
students and as a consultant and an
educator I have also walked into
hundreds of rooms and asked thousands
upon thousands of people are you
creative and only a couple of hands will
go up each time
which makes me so sad because I know it
to not be true and that's how people sit
and hold themselves and
so uh I typically will start a class or
working with a group with an exercise
and they do some drawing and then they
draw collaboratively together and you
can watch the smiles come up and can
watch the the the the people change in
the room and after that exercise most of
the hands will grow up when I ask it
again now it's not that I am an amazing
teacher I mean I am an amazing teacher
but it's not just me that's doing it
what we did was change their definition
and their relationship to what
creativity
means that same thing is true for
Innovation people think that it's
something that it isn't and so there are
all these myths about what Innovation is
or should be and there are all these
myths about an innovator and who that is
like a a lone genius off that has this
Eureka moment that just happens and the
reality is that that is just never the
case those things hold people back from
even trying to do Innovation and so
they're waiting for someone to help or
to give them permission and we wanted to
address that because Innovation is for
everyone so that's why we wrote the book
that's fantastic we really can't wait uh
to read the full book but meanwhile can
you tell us how do you plan to make
Innovation accessible to
everyone right we did a lot of research
into all of the design and Innovation
and creativity Frameworks that we could
find and we keep adding more in we've
got well over 80 maybe over 100 by now
and we go in and code them for what are
the things that they are doing what are
the mindsets that make up that process
that approach that
methodology what we've come up with is
there are only six and so there's really
only six different mindsets you need to
take on and mindsets are just a way a
perspective of looking at the world and
so all of these methodologies are trying
to get at the same thing which sort of
means they're all okay to use there
isn't the one right one you don't have
to pick find the right one go to the
right place get the right
certificate it it's something that
everyone has access to and so by
starting with a really simple way to
view things you can go out and get tools
then from any toolkit that's out there
something from open source a proprietary
thing that you got from over here and
you can blend and use them all if you
understand how you're going about doing
it so if if you're new to Innovation
this gives you an easy way and helps you
get started on the right path by giving
you a guide to all the material that's
out there there's so much information if
you've been trying to innovate but it
hasn't gone quite right I think this
book can help to give you an idea of
where it has gone off track and how to
get back on track if you're experiencing
some impostor syndrome like I don't have
the authorization or who am I to
innovate Innovation is reassures people
that you are in the right place and that
you can do this it's giving permission
and if you have been successful at doing
Innovation Innovation is can help you
understand better what you're doing and
continue to improve so from a growth
mindset perspective we all including
myself are always learning more about
how creativity and Innovation work and
how we can do it in a better way so
that's part of how we destroy or get rid
of clear away these myths that people
hold earlier today you mentioned that
it's important to distinguish creativity
and Innovation can you elaborate on the
difference between the two for our
listeners so for a long time I taught a
class called creativity and Innovation
because they're very tightly tied uh I
was teaching at Stanford with uh
Professor Tina seelig and uh she wanted
because we teach creativity and
Innovation people would sometimes ask
what is the difference we get this
question from students students ask the
best questions the ones that you're not
prepared for and don't necessarily have
a good answer and so she went out and
wrote a whole book on that and I like
the frame that she uses imagination is
our ability to Envision something that
doesn't exist like you can imagine a
plate of cookies in front of you now
your cookies might not look like my
cookies but we both can see a plate of
cookies we all have the ability to use
our imagination
if you use your imagination to solve a
problem that's the definition she uses
for
creativity and if you define it that way
it's a lot more inclusive a lot of
people when I ask for the hands to go up
they think can I create a work of art
can I make a
Picasso that's a form of creativity but
creativity is really solving a problem
by using your imagination and imagining
new things now in the world of Art
that problem you're solving is how do I
communicate an esoteric human quality
like grief or anguish or love or joy in
a way that I can pass it on to others
that's the problem they're solving by
creating a work of art so that's going
to look different but when you are
working on a problem that you want to
solve creatively it's going to look
differently if you're not making art the
problem is
different separate from that inov
is using creativity to create something
is new to the world mixing and matching
blending new things together or coming
up with uh a so many different ideas
that one of them is new and we haven't
seen before doesn't mean it's a good
idea but Innovation is coming with lots
of different ideas that are new and then
uh she goes on to say that
entrepreneurship is taking that and
making it exist in the world because
there is a lot Beyond I have a good idea
if if it just took the ideas then people
all across the country would be
millionaires because everybody has great
ideas on how to solve their problems
every day but then they don't take that
step to go and make it and realize it in
the world
so that's kind of stratifying from
imagination to entrepreneurship and I
think what uh Innovation is really
focuses on is how do you identify and
frame the problem that you're really
looking for and come up with different
ways test it and then prepare to enact
it in the world right I I love that
distinction and you know I'm thinking it
is obvious that uh creativity can exist
without Innovation and we can see that
by talking with people who have flry of
ideas every day but never um execute
them right uh so while creativity is uh
highly important in business settings it
is such an abstract uh process that
works uh best in structured and uh
that's how we got design thinking
methods
right I'm thinking what is the
difference between uh how how does uh
Innovation is augment or differs from
design thinking method sure design
thinking and all of its sort of various
forms was one of the methodologies that
we used in our research
encoded and design thinking is a
structure that that started back in the
50s and was popularized really in the
early uh the late 90s and early
thousands um by The hosel plutner
Institute of Design at Stanford it also
was the foundation of the design firm
idio that a lot of people have heard of
and has gotten a lot of notoriety so
that
methodology encompasses these same set
of
mindsets um that Innovation is does so
it is just one of many different forms
and it is a great toolkit and there are
a lot of really good learning resources
and so I would encourage people to dig
into that and then stop short of that is
the way or the only way that there are
others and you don't have to be so
locked in a lot of a lot of people or a
lot of organizations try to create their
proprietary method so that they can sort
of protect and sell it but really they
are all working in the same way and
design thinking has these core
principles of of getting out and doing
interactions with people really
understanding the world and learning
from others um it has ideation and
creating lots of different
ideas many times it is taught in a way
that is a sequence like here are the
steps that you take as a process and
even the uh the D school at Stanford has
moved away from that to have the design
abilities it's a different way of
explaining it than the mindsets but
that's really what it is it's the
abilities you need to be able to do this
thing called creativity and
Innovation so I think it matches up
really well I think actually ability
sounds like
non-inclusive uh word right so like I
like when we talk about ability I almost
immediately feel that like someone has
this ability and someone does not right
like like a trait or uh like not a skill
but the ability so yeah but we'll get to
that later so earlier you mentioned six
mindset crucial for Innovation can you
share what these mindsets are sure so
interactions is the first one we Nam
them all with eyes to try to make them
easier to remember but interactions is
the first one and that is getting out
into the world and interacting with
people uh so that you can learn about a
problem and learn about the needs of
other people insights is the process of
taking all those conversations and uh
pulling it together so you can
understand what's really going on and
have an insight into what's the problem
you're trying to solve ideas mindset is
about generating an avalanche of ideas
thousands and thousands of them so that
you can pick through and find the ones
that really work that is the iterations
mindset going out and testing ideas
being the idea person is not all that
valuable if all you can do is come up
with ideas you have to get it out and
test it and see and you have to be able
to hold those ideas Loosely um a lot of
people come up with an idea it's it's
their idea they take ownership they
protect it it it turns it into something
else if you hold them really Loosely
like here's one I could come up with a
bunch more let's see if it works you can
get better feedback and you can let go
of those ideas that really aren't going
to work they're a great idea they just
don't
work um inspiration is
about enacting storytelling and
narrative to get an idea and develop it
you have to enroll others you have to
enroll clients or customers Partners uh
people to join the team and be on the
project potentially investors or funders
you need to be able to articulate it in
a way that makes sense and inspiration
helps to inspire others to understand
what you're what your idea you're going
for and what problem you're solving and
then implications is a really important
one there are a lot of very good
ideas but when you actually take that
idea and put it out into the world it
can have unintended consequences now
hopefully if you designed well you have
all the intended consequences that you
want but then there are unintended
consequences for instance I won't
pinpoint any particular one but if you
look at social media social media has
algorithms
that had things like a like button and
if they had been thinking ahead about
what are the implications of that a like
button means that you change the
algorithm and tune to get the things
that you like which means you start to
eliminate other ideas and soon you've
created an echo chamber and that Echo
chamber leads to no nude ideas and
polarization which is now really uh
pervasive in our society we like you see
it every
day you could think ahead and and
realize that allowing an algorithm to do
that would look ahead and I like to
think that they didn't do that exercise
I like to think that they it was an
unintended consequence of them doing
things the way they are because I
believe in the goodness of people but
I'm not convinced that it wasn't a
profit driven
motive so those are the implications
that's the implications mindset is
looking at if we do this how will we do
it and what will happen after that uh
Richard how do you suggest cultivate
these mindsets and behaviors for leaders
and their teams we're really in writing
this book we're talking to three main
groups one is Business Leaders how do
you Foster Grassroots innovation in in
every Division and department and adopt
uh uh an innovation mindset and culture
we're also talking to the employees of
those leaders that are in businesses and
nonprofits and governments and schools
all the Frontline people to how do you
get past that impostor syndrome The Who
might to be an innovator to be able to
do what the leaders are now
asking and we're also speaking to
businesses and schools and graduates who
are getting people ready to go into that
Workforce so all three of those I think
work in
concert understanding that and where
people are is a key thing for Business
Leaders how you
reward uh give incentives to and act and
operate around creativity Innovation
might look different
than it did in more traditional styles
of management and Leadership there's a
quite a change that's happened in
leadership in the last 20 years with how
people operate and it still can go more
to encourage this so one is getting
really comfortable with
ambiguity and not comfortable so we can
sort of like grip really tightly and
make our way through the ambiguity until
we're back to the nice comfortable
Clarity but to Embrace and sit in
ambiguity in not knowing in being
curious and exploring and being
uncertain and in business with reports
and metrics and deadlines and everything
ambiguity can be challenging but as a
leader it's critical that you embrace
the benefit of people sitting in not
knowing in an
ambiguity another uh piece is you have
to get comfortable
with how your relationship to
failure what kinds of failure there
there are because there
is failure that is stretching Beyond
trying to innovate come up with
something new no one has done it you
should not expect that you can do it
right the first time if you are trying
to stretch and really innovate and so
you have to get comfortable with the
first few tries are not going to work
and maybe the first hundred tries are
not going to work there's the iconic
story of the invention of the light bulb
and finding a thousand ways not to build
a light bulb that's what we're talking
about but let's not get confused by
failure is a good thing nobody is trying
to fail when they're innovating they are
trying hard to succeed but fall short a
few times as they go through and learn
and in science if you think about
running experiments the most interesting
things that happen is when something
unexpected happens when it doesn't go
the way you thought it would and in
there is the Discovery and the learning
and the understanding so thinking about
failure as a process of learning and
continuing to go to achieve the
goal there is a bad kind of failure so I
don't want to come across as there's no
failure and I think the whole world is
fantastic there's some bad failure and I
do it sometimes I miss an appointment I
just mess up with my calendar it's
failures of just executing on day-to-day
routine things I'm not trying to
innovate I don't I don't celebrate and
be like oh what a great failure I just
missed a
meeting uh that's that's not a good and
happy Innovation failure so that's what
I mean about your relationship to it I
try to succeed at everything I just give
some space for a learning process and
not getting it right the first time and
that is th those two ideas and it and
learning to change the relationship that
you have as a leader when failure
happens with your people if somebody
consistently is doing those execution
failures they need some feedback it
might need some some other actions that
go on but if you're asking them to
stretch when they come to you and say it
didn't work engaging with what did you
learn how do we where do we go from here
what is the right Next Step so you
demystify that nobody wants to present
the failure to the boss but if you can
encourage them to make those stretches
then they're going to discover
incredible things and you're going to
end up with people who have much more
agency they feel more permission they're
going to stretch farther and they will
start to amaze you with the things they
go off and do in fact I've got a great
story we worked with the CEO of a
Prestige luxury brand they make um
facial
products they explicitly for years did
not enter the market with any kind of
tools mechanics machines or equipment it
was kind of part of this this the fabric
of the company and the CEO really core
that we should not do that but after we
worked with them we taught them these
tools the CEO started espousing it he's
an amazing guy uh it the whole company
was really doing great things with
Innovation but a group on the side went
off and didn't an experiment and said if
we bring this tool in when we do our
sales our sales go up on the things that
aren't the tool by having it and they
brought the data back to him and said
this is what you told us to do and this
is what it says and it actually changed
that CEO he was comfortable enough to
trust the people the process that they
had done and that the data showed it was
the right thing to do and so a little
bit they entered into that
market so that's a great leadership and
Innovation story is to he teaches it
within the company not just to his
direct team but to everyone he'll take
somebody in and help them get on board
with this and then really live it and so
the whole company is comfortable and
will produce that and it turned out to
really be a bottom line benefit to the
company yeah thank you for that example
and um it felt like that group really
needed lots of agency to be able to
venture and uh start something that was
not considered um the general direction
for the company yeah so um one thing I
wanted to focus again on your book and
one of the section that we luckily were
able to check out H focuses on myths
about Innovation right can you discuss a
few and how they can be barriers uh to
innovate yeah there are a lot of myths
and I think the
media uh helps to encourage a lot of
those myths because they make for really
good stories like if you there are a lot
of movies out there about Silicon Valley
there are TV shows about Silicon Valley
that there's this overnight billionaire
the the kid in their dorm room that goes
out and they all of a sudden turn into
the next unicorn company and you can
only be Innovative in Silicon Valley of
course of course it's it's the only
place that it ever happens and the
problem with all of those media articles
and and sources is that they're very
Loosely based on the truth they're just
not full of
truth it's a great story and it plays
well well but uh they miss the years and
years of failure and trial and uh the
iterations that happened before that
overnight Epiphany
and it does happen fast don't get me
wrong after a lot of work getting there
once it takes hold and they really have
understood the need nailed the problem
got a solution that is widespread it can
spread incredibly quickly I mean take a
look at it was a little over 18 months
that chat GPT launched into the world
the penetration of of generative chat
has been incredible and it keeps moving
at a faster
Pace 30 years a 35 years ago in gra in
school I was working on AI it was the
same kind of things it has taken a long
time not none of this is really new but
all the pieces have come together to
have it come into the world in this new
way and so it is that traditional hockey
stick that you see but all those hockey
sticks that you see if you keep going
back to the left you'll see the very
long close to zero line on it so those
are the kind of myths that are
propagated and one of them that
overnight epiphany is that Innovation is
not hard work or not Innovation is hard
it is not hard it is hard work the
individual tools and things that you
need to
do don't take special degrees and
special training I mean you can get
special training in in some of those
areas but if you do it with diligence
repeatedly over and over you can get
there so
um conversely there is no such thing as
that big Eureka moment where someone has
the bright
idea right it's Innovation takes
continuous incremental iteration trial
error going out and uh interacting with
people trying something putting it in
front of more people it just takes a lot
of work so there is not just overnight I
thought of the idea that really just
doesn't happen so that's a couple of the
myths that uh we are trying to get away
from and give people permission in the
classes that I
teach especially toward the end of the
year for anybody that's graduating or
getting going out into the workforce we
get a lot of students that come up and
want to talk to us about like what
should I be doing and how H how do I go
get a job and how do I take this with me
if the company doesn't want to do it
and uh I think
the main thing that I start repeating as
we get toward the end of the semester is
you have to give yourself permission to
go and do this most of the time you're
not going to have someone come up and
say could you please start this new
process and here's your permission to go
and run with it that's a message for
leaders is if you can do that and
encourage people and set that culture
you're going to get more out of them but
there's a certain amount of you don't
have to say what you're doing you don't
have to go off and uh start your big new
project you can just incorporate a
little bit of innovation into whatever
you're doing pick a tool or two that
might help you move things forward in
the work you're already doing and that
is a great thing to do but you have to
give yourself permission another one is
although it's easier now is to get out
of the office get out of your office
your home office and interact with other
people we so often think I have to sit
in my conference room in my home studio
on Zoom or uh or whatever video
conferencing and I have to come up with
the idea and if you engage other people
you give yourself permission to do
things that aren't the way that
everybody else is doing them then you
start to achieve those those differences
you you you have a lot more when you go
out and talk to someone come back and
say what I've heard from this group of
10 users is now that has a lot more
weight than just you in your opinion
it's uh really seductive this idea you
know the the idea that you can get all
the success that you dreamed about uh
one night but it can or usually lead to
unrealistic expectations and we recently
Juliana and I read the hbr article about
how this Uber moments or you knowa
moments how they overshadow the more
important matter of how an invention
reaches the
marketplace and they provide the example
of uh Thomas Edison and how he often
emphasized the importance of persistence
over you know random
inspiration and uh this famous quote
that we left that 1% is inspiration and
99% of
perspiration yes yeah that's how he
highlighted this similarly Thomas Watson
Jr of IBM struggled for years to
transition from Punch Cards to computers
right same article yeah because Yan and
I read them as we were getting ready for
discussions like this and he drew
inspiration from the R Brothers right
who took years of painstaking effort
after their initial flight to prove
sustained flight to the world yeah I I I
love all of those stories and I think
that is what
is that's what should be taught in all
entrepreneurship stories I think if you
interview most entrepreneurs a few years
in they largely will say if I knew what
it would take to get here I would have
never started this so there's a little
bit of this optimism that I think you
need to go off and tread A New Path but
I think the reality is they would have
because they did choose that path and
they kept going and it is that
persistence I mean for us we say it's
not hard it's hard work it's this the
same thing it takes dedication and
persistence to move forward to come up
with something is really new it's easy
to come up with something
that is fast is easy to do but it may
not be the best thing and the the the
ideas the products where you instantly
recognize and say oh I need to get one
of those those are the ones that have
done all of the hard work to really
understand the need and what's really
going on and you don't have to be the
first
one that's another myth is that first
mover advantage and you have to be the
first to the
market apple is famous for being almost
last to the market and they first
products not being their best products
they have a design ethic inside that
really they keep iterating and refining
and making it better and better and I
think it you can't really question the
success of their model so how do you
suggest to shift from waiting for that
Uber moment to embracing and uh
incremental
process yeah I think
one of the things that's intoxicating I
think you said intoxicating about those
overnight epiphanies is it means boy are
you super
smart and I think you have to let go of
that and have humility I think design
requires humility you have to realize
that you are not that important that the
other people around you and in front of
you that you're designing for and with
are the important people and that's a
that's a lesson I actually learned from
my side career of Performing improv when
you're on stage with somebody the most
important person is the person opposite
you how do you make them look good and
serve them and that same thing is true
in design how do you design for these
other people understand their needs
forget about what you know take a
beginner's mindset and get curious and
learn and understand that is a critical
piece for or going about you can design
for yourself and if that's all you want
to do you can call that Innovation as
well but I think if you want to design
for other people first you have to take
a step of
humility and the other thing is I think
you need to set the bar Lower to start
don't shoot for a moonshot on everything
you do and that's the only thing and you
have to get there in this one giant leap
that's the hardest part to be able to
move step by step not seeing and not you
know seeking for the uh for seeeing the
whole picture absolutely well and that
is navigating this huge sea of ambiguity
because you don't know if you can get
there you don't even know exactly where
you're headed and you still have to keep
moving forward so there's a lot of grit
that it takes to move forward to that
and persistence
and then I think you have to like we
were saying about the moonshot the moon
to get to the moon took Decades of small
steps to get there and we don't need a
moonshot for everything like a lot of
things a roof shot is great and can make
a big difference within a company if
everybody in the company had one roof
shop for a year per year it would
transform every company that adopted
that it can be really powerful and
so a lot of what holds people back you
mentioned design thinking there are a
lot of people that go to take and learn
design thinking in courses and boot
camps and things like that and there is
this moment of disillusionment that
happens because you nobody has the brand
new project that you can start from
scratch and build a team I mean a few
people do Lucky few people but most of
them don't and then if you can't go and
do all those things that you were told
then you're kind of stuck and you can't
do it what we're saying with Innovation
is is you can do a little and doing a
little is better and you move things
forward a little bit more and then you
can add some more in and if you really
need a moonshot or something that's
really good you do what those Elite
design firms are doing and they are
diligently doing these every day all day
and putting in all the work that's
needed to get there but if you want to
just improve your process your product
your problem that you're solving a
little bit you can just do a little bit
and see how it goes and that's that give
yourself permission to try it and it can
be for some people really addicting
where you I mean that in a very loose
sense of like it's engaging it's
interesting you get something really
good after a lot of hard work and you're
like that was great let me do a little
more and so you can ease into this
process it's not an all or nothing there
isn't a set of steps you have to do them
all you're partway through a project
jump into some iterations and do a
couple of tests if that's all you do
we're still happy and you're still
Innovation is as far as we're concerned
you might not be an innovator you might
not you know be honoring your design
thinking certificate but you are being
Innovation is and that's why is is on
there is it's a little bit softer genter
gentler entry in to have more of it in
the world because it doesn't have to be
All or Nothing Richard I'm also curious
what is the role of speed in uh
Innovation process in your thinking
because we uh recently had this
conversation with Hai R we've discussed
with Hai who is um you know who wrote
the book about operational excellence
and how to scale uh excellence and how
to avoid friction and how friction can
be good and bad and uh we got this
Insight from conversation with him that
even startups or whatever Innovation you
create it's not necessarily you have to
you know double down on a speed because
uh sometimes startups and Innovation
needs to be slowed down by friction and
by that it can save uh the company from
your you know lawsuits or any other
problems that
creates yeah what you think about this
yeah I I like the idea of for me slowing
down I think equates to stopping to be
intentional and thoughtful about not
what you do next not just go fast break
things just do stuff nothing about what
Innovation is is is about just doing
more it's about being really careful and
thoughtful about what is the thing I
what's the question I need to ask next
how can I find that answer out where
have I
seen something like this before that I
can draw on to move it forward and so it
doesn't mean you can't move fast or get
a lot of things done it is hard work and
you can do it in you know a series of
Rapid Sprints to get there
but I think it's not speed
above in intention and
thoughtfulness so the other thing I
think is we all have the real world
around us with deadlines with clients
and deadlines with funders and deadlines
you have to be able to move progress and
so for me speed also speaks to the scale
or scope so you can go faster to a
smaller piece and then do a series of
pieces and that's a little bit more
iterative model so I think you can move
fast I think you do need to break things
I just think you need more than that and
you need to be careful and thoughtful
about how you're getting there and then
give yourself enough
structure that you can move and keep
pace and keep that
persistence uh going no structure is
actually it makes it harder you can swim
and wallow in ambiguity you can do fun
interesting things for a long time in
the name of
creativity but I think it's not doing
Innovation at that point it's
enjoyable but I think you need to also
keep things moving forward with that
intention so about through line and for
me the analogy that I like being a
musician I've played classical and I
have played Jazz we didn't know that
yeah how come we didn't know
that well uh I I don't know I I I uh
um with classical music every note is
written the entire Symphony plays
together with Precision it is beautiful
but the creativity happens by the
composer in orchest UST rating that
there is creativity in the musicians but
it's everything is prescribed in there
structure and for me that aligns with a
more traditional world and a more
traditional way that companies went
about problem solving even back to the
early days of developing software with
what they called the waterfall model you
get requirements then you develop a
version it it's all very sequenced jazz
on the other hand everyone still stays
together but it's very loose you have
the chord structure and that's all the
notes are not prescribed in most
cases and so if everybody follows the
guide and stays in their Lane everything
they play will blend together but it's
new it's different it's interesting
every time and there's a lot of creative
freedom that isn't afforded it doesn't
I'm I don't want to denigrate I loved
classical music and I loved playing it
it's an act of precision and execution
and jazz is a different different form
of it but for me that's the creativity
that happens in Innovation and design is
you have a whole team with a rough set
of Sprints and objectives and everybody
is working together to come up with
something that's magical and that's
where I think Innovation can happen I
really love that analogy and uh I love
that um I feel like it's such a great
metaphor for creativity music um it's
perfect perfect so let's dive into
creative leadership what does it mean to
be a creative leader can you share an
example of a leader who exemplifies
creative leadership and I think the
example that we talked about the luxury
brand is a really good one
of empowering and educating your people
of creating the conditions where the
principles the mindsets that we're
talking about in Innovation is are
rewarded
I have heard of uh we've had clients
that they will have award ceremonies and
they will reward failure you could have
failure Awards everybody has rewards for
successes but that just means the bar
keeps getting higher you have to do it
right but people that have had lots of
iterations and lots of failures can be
rewarded as well as long as that is on
the way too and there is a success in
there as well so I think es and
experiments being rewarded and
incentives for that can be really
helpful
also
um I think you have
to let go of control that humility that
I talked about I think has to start with
leadership
also command and control I am the expert
I know more I have been there I have
done that I will distribute the
assignments to you to go go and do I
think is not the way of
innovation it it's not the way of a a
lot of places even the military has
gotten away from that command and
control you still respect the the
hierarchy and the authority there but
things like the commander's intent where
here's the goal that we're going to set
but on the ground when you are there and
doing your job you might have to modify
the plan to achieve the same goal and I
think that is the style that you really
want to do you want to set out strong
goals encourage and nurture people move
things out of their way help them to try
to reflect on what they're doing to
understand where they could go another
way jump in and help roll up your
sleeves to help them achieve what
they're trying to do is more the style
of leadership that is going to Foster
Innovation really creating that as a
culture yeah as you put it uh be right
be uh be brief be gone doesn't work in
leadership anymore it doesn't not if you
want an innovation culture there are
companies organizations culture uh
company cultures that that might be the
perfect thing but that is not going to
Foster Innovation and creativity richer
can you share some practical steps uh
that leaders can take to enhance
creativity in problem solving I think
one practical thing that leaders can do
to help Foster some creativity and some
Innovation is to ask really good
questions go to your team the team lead
to your people ask them how could you
better understand what you're working on
or who else might you need to include to
help bring in a different perspective to
the project um how could you
try how could you experiment to try out
the idea you're thinking of to see if
it's going to work in the world those
kind of questions that make people
really start to think take that
intentional step what's the core thing
that you need to solve next in your
project so I think being inquisitive
you're going to help people get
into thinking about how they're thinking
metacognitive reflection is what we
would call that how do you help them to
start to think through what they're
doing more deeply so that they can come
up with the solutions on their own I
think that is a one very easy practical
thing that leaders can do this has been
an incredibly excital conversation and
as we wrap up what's the one key
takeaway you want our listeners to
remember about creative leadership and
Innovation and about your
work I think Innovation is for
everyone anyone can can do it you just
have to start with something think about
what you could do try something see how
it works and then learn from
that and don't put the pressure on
yourself that you have to do at all or
be the smart one you just have to
keep moving forward intentionally
chipping away at that problem that's
where it really happens is by
consistently intentionally moving
forward with what you do next thank you
so much Richard this has been such a
wonderful conversation and we can't wait
to see your book uh in a bookstore
thanks yeah me too or in my mailbox yeah
yeah sign book in my mailbox that's what
I wait I can't wait to see it in a
doc then we'll get it out to everybody
so step by step incremental changes that
is right that is
right thank you both so much I I so
enjoy interacting with you and uh both
the the last one and this one and I'm
looking forward to the the me to we the
next one that wraps up our conversation
with Richard Braden today we explored
the essence of creativity and Innovation
debunk common mys and discussed how to
cultivate an Innovative mindset one key
takeaway is that Innovation is for
everyone and it's about consistently and
intentionally moving towards problem
solving if you want to support Mastery
talks head over to patreon to
patreon.com talks and join our community
to get an access to exclusive giveaway
and some extra perks subscribe to
Mastery talks on your favorite podcast
app to stay up to date we'd love to hear
your thoughts feel free to share your
questions in comments or just write Us
in email at teammy talks.com we'd love
to know how this episode affected you
thank you for tuning in and until next
time keep innovating and creating
Browse More Related Video
Tina Seelig: The 6 Characteristics of Truly Creative People
10 Companies that Failed to Innovate: 5 Innovation Lessons Learned
Ep 2: Business Innovation | Innovation and Entrepreneurship | SkillUp
Simon Sinek: Leadership and being a Leader
A crash course in creativity: Tina Seelig at TEDxStanford
Young people are solution for tomorrow | Jack Ma Motivational Speech
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)