Did you have time to read the newest HBR Working Knowledge article. It's titled " The Accidental Innovator" and it highlights a recent paper authored by Robert Austin and Lee Devin. They explore the concept of accidental innovation. As you would suspect, many discoveries and inventions were connected to an accident of some type, such as breakage or spillage of something important. This unintended action led to some surprising outcomes.
The article includes examples of items that were developed in part as a result of an accident. They include: cellophane, cornflakes, dynamite, the ice cream soda, Ivory soap, NutraSweet, penicillin, photography, and the small pox vaccine. The list is larger...but this still gives you a great perspective.
In review, it seems that sometimes the unexpected (accidents) can lead to great outcomes, while other times highly controlled, scientific approaches are just as successful. Therefore, the process of developing new innovations is important to understand. If you strongly believe in a scientific process then you will design a discovery method based on that. However, if you believe that the unexpected can influence design, then you might want to build into your innovation process a way to create an "accident" and explore the outcomes.
Take a look at this facinating article when you have time.
Michael T. Bauer
http://www.creativeleading.com/ote
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment