Making Innovation Real: 15 Ways

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Making Innovation Real 15 Ways Opening Ceremony Talk, Savonia University Savonia, Finland, 2011 Garry K VanPatter CoFounder, Humantific

“In that moment, I decided to embrace this accident.”

© 2013 Humantific. All Rights Reserved.

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Thank you for inviting me to speak at this important kick-off event for Savonia University.

New school years are always an exciting time, as many here will begin a new journey or carry on with one already set in motion.

For those of you who might not know, I am cofounder of the innovation-consultancy, Humantific, in New York. What we do at Humantific is help humans from different tribes work together to solve complex problems and to take advantage of new opportunities.

Apparently someone from Savonia University saw me present in Helsinki at the Future of Innovation conference last year– and so here I am!

It was when the Savonia University organizers called me to explain this event, that I learned it was going to be outdoors, and so no image projection was going to be available. In hearing that news, I was a little baffled, as this words-only format is quite different from what we typically do. In our corner of the universe, it’s a little like speaking using only half a language, as, for us, words and images go together in clear communication.

Oh– one more thing the organizers said: “Here in Finland, we already know all about this innovation thing…the word has become a little tired. Many know the term, but have some difficulty getting traction on realizing innovation.”

I thought to myself, “Ok– you want me to give a talk on innovation, outside, without any visuals, and you know all about the subject...

I’m in trouble!”

For several days I considered these key facts. I contemplated how to frame–in conceptual terms–what we do without showing pictures.

I grappled with how I could add something here that might be of some small value.

Several days passed.

Then one day last week, while I was at the checkout counter in the grocery store around the corner from where I live in Manhattan, I stopped to chat for a few minutes with the cashier. She proactively started asking me questions: Am I a professor? What did I do? Etc. I noticed that she had a tattoo on her arm consisting of a few words written in script. I asked her about it, and she told me that she was a student of literature at New York University.

She told me that the text was from one of her favorite poems: “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” by Wallace Stevens. I told her that I did not know Stevens’ work, but was a big fan of Henry David www.humantific.com 2 © 2013 Humantific. All Rights Reserved.

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Thoreau, who once wrote, “The bluebird carries the sky on its back.”

It was a brief, momentary exchange of metaphoric thinking between two strangers.

On my way home with my groceries in hand, it occurred to me that I had just experienced a moment of providence–of serendipity–that I could ignore or embrace.

Completely out of any other ideas, I said to myself, “Maybe there is something good here...?” In that moment, I decided to embrace this accident.

I went home and Googled “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”.

I discovered that Stevens had written the poem in 1917, based on the orientation of the cubists– signifying the notion that one can look at an object or subject from many different directions and create form from those directions depicted simultaneously.

It’s an orientation that we use in teaching innovation skills, and remains relevant today.

I was amazed to see that the book in which this poem first appeared was entitled “Harmonia”. By coincidence, the innovation system inside our company is called “Harmonics”. Harmonia and Harmonics!

That’s serendipity!

Being open to such accidents, I thought it might be useful to take this idea, given to me on a silver platter by the grocery store cashier, and use it to construct the direction of what I was being asked to speak about here in Savonia. It somehow seemed appropriate, as innovation, for us, has always involved creating a balance between deliberate, formal actions and paying attention to unprogrammed accidents– serendipity.

With the help of Google, I then noticed that over the years, others had grabbed onto the notions of 13 things– so I found…

13 Ways to Make Your Professor Love You 13 ways to tell if you’re a stalker: 13 Ways to Move Your Facebook Fans to Action ...and numerous others.

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In a build on the anonymous grocery clerk’s idea, here are:

15 Ways to Make Innovation Real, Here at Savonia University 1. Give it a purpose in the local community.

2. Define it in a way that is actionable.

3. Make it a capability that helps others solve real problems.

4. Make it an instrument that helps to frame fuzzy challenges.

5. Make it an enabler of cross-disciplinary inclusion.

6. Make it home grown.

7. Make it visual.

8. Make it adaptable.

9. Make it robust with real tools.

10. Make it part of an open system.

11. Teach real skills not just give out team assignments.

12. Fund it and empower its leaders.

13. Think big / create a system / innovation is needed everywhere.

14. Make it the center of your entire school.

15. Continuously communicate its story visually.

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Ok, that’s it for me.

If anyone would like to hear more, I will be giving a one-hour talk tomorrow at 9am, here in the design school, on the subject of cross-disciplinary innovation– WITH VISUALS! Thanks to all of you for listening, and thanks again to my anonymous friend in the grocery store!

Let’s keep our eyes and minds open to deliberate actions– and those serendipitous moments!”

For any of you wondering what words were written on the cashier’s arm, the words were, “Imagine golden birds.”

Good luck to everyone this school year!

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