Innovation Engine by Tina Seelig (Excerpt)

5/26/2018 Innovation Engine by Tina Seelig (Excerpt)

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innovation

engine


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also by tina seelig

What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20:

A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World

inGenius:A Crash Course on Creativity


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innovation

engine

Tina Seelig


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Copyrightinnovation engine. Copyright 2013by Tina L. Seelig. All rights

reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of thisbook may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever withoutwritten permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied incritical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollinsPublishers, 10East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business,or sales promotional use. For information please e-mail the SpecialMarkets Department at [email protected].

HarperCollins website: http://www.harpercollins.com

HarperCollins, , and HarperOne are trademarks of Harper-Collins Publishers.

first edition

ISBN 9780062327048

14 15 16 17 18 rrd(h) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1


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contents

introduction vii

Inside

imagination 3

knowledge 12

attitude 23

Outside

habitat 33

resources 43

culture 49inside out and outside in 55

notes 65


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introduction

As children, we naturally engage our curiosity and

imagination in an attempt to make sense of the

complicated world around us. We experiment with

everything in our midst, grabbing objects to seehow they feel, dropping them to see how far they

fall, and banging them to see how they sound. We

mix together random cooking ingredients to see how

they taste, make up games with ever-changing rules,

and fantasize about what it would be like to live in

outer space.

As we approach adulthood, however, we too

often forget how to be creative. We give up playing

and focus on producing, swapping imagination for

implementation.

The good news is it doesnt have to be this way.

The human brain evolved over millions of years

into a fabulously complex organ that is optimized

for innovation. With input from all our senses, it is

always assessing our ever-changing environment and


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the innovation engine

generating fresh responses to fit each situation. Each

stimulus, no matter how small, can jump-start cre-

ativity.

Let me demonstrate this with a single word.

Until recently, prospective students at All Souls

College, at the University of Oxford, took a one-

word exam. The Essayas it was calledwas eagerlyanticipated by applicants. They would each flip

over a piece of paper at the same time to reveal one

word. It might have been innocence or miracles

or water. Their challenge was to craft an essay in

three hours inspired by that single word.There were no right answers to this exam. How-

ever, each response provided insights into the appli-

cants wealth of knowledge and ability to generate

creative connections. The New York Times quotes

one Oxford professor as saying, The unveiling of

the word was once an event of such excitement that

even non-applicants reportedly gathered outside the

college each year, waiting for news to waft out.1

For so many of us, this type of creativity hasnt

been fostered. We dont see our entire environment


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introduction

as a source of opportunities for ingenuity. Yet, cre-

ativity should be an imperative, and we should look

at everything around us for inspiration. Creativity

allows us to thrive in a changing world and unlocks a

universe of possibilities. As the renowned American

inventor Alan Kay famously said, The best way to

predict the future is to invent it. We are all inventorsof our own future. And creativity is at the heart of

invention.

For centuries people have questioned these natu-

ral talents and looked outside themselves for a source

of creative inspiration. The ancient Greeks believedthere were goddesses, called Muses, who inspired lit-

erature and art, and they worshipped them for their

powers.2 Later, in Elizabethan England, William

Shakespeare invoked his muse when writing son-

nets, often beseeching her for help.3Ideas often feel

inspired and, therefore, it made sense to beg a muse

for inspiration.

Your creativity is, in fact, an endless renewable

resource, and you can tap it at any time.

After a dozen years teaching courses on creativity


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the innovation engine

and entrepreneurship in the department of

Management Science and Engineering at Stanford

University, I can confidently assert that creativity

can be enhanced. A concrete set of methods and

environmental factors can be used to intensify your

imagination, and by optimizing these variables, your

creativity naturally increases. I call this collection offactors the Innovation Engine.

The Innovation Engine, shown in the following

figure, illustrates how creativity results from the

interplay between your internal world and the exter-

nal environment. It reveals a set of techniques youcan use right away to evaluate and expand your cre-

ativity and that of your team, organization, or com-

munity. Using these techniques, you can improve

your ability to see opportunities around you and

creatively tackle challenges of all sizes.

The Innovation Engine has two partsthe inside

and the outsidebraided together. On the inside are

imagination, knowledge, and attitude:


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***

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Innovation Engine by Tina Seelig (Excerpt)