Innovative entrepreneurs think differently from most people. People tend to look at the world and see “what is;” the innovative entrepreneur looks at the world and sees “what could be.” (not original idea, but couldn’t find exact quote.) They look toward the future, realizing that the future will be what we make it. Alan Kay, computer scientist and visionary of the personal computer, said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” And that’s what people like Ford, Jobs, Musk, Edison, Gates, and their band of entrepreneurs have done. YOU can play that game!
Studies suggest there is an “entrepreneurial mindset“ that helps us through the process. We introduced part of that in Topic 1 with the VIPER characteristics (remember what they are?). This topic will focus on ideation, where creative ideas come from and how we can get more of them. We’ll look a bit more at the Entrepreneurial Mindset, too. (SHOUT OUT to Gary Schoeniger, founder of ELI, the Entrepreneurial Mindset Institute, who we’ll explore in a later Topic.)
Creativity (probably stuff here to surprise you)
Educators and their researchers and theorists have defined creativity as the production of divergent or novel ideas. Accepted psychological tests of creativity count the number of divergent ideas such as “how many uses for a paperclip can you think of?” Unfortunately, the definition that may work for children doesn’t work for entrepreneurs and most adults. The best definitions I’ve encountered, go something like this, “A creative idea is a novel or divergent idea that helps to solve a problem.” In other words, divergent ideas need to be useful in some way. Real innovators are adamant that creativity must be balanced by discipline.
Consider poets, who we laud for their creativity. They may be bound by rigid rules of rhyme or meter. Even if free form, they are bound by more abstract rules. Jazz musicians are like that. They are expected to be creative, but WITHIN the discipline of the piece and in sync with the other members of the group. Another way to say it is, the innovation must actually effect a change to solve a problem. It must take action and create an impact. Here’s a chunk from a thoughtful web page on the author of Flow‘s process of creativity (his name is nearly unpronounceable — people call him “Mike” for good reason!):
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Mike) wrote that the creative process normally takes five steps (Creativity, 1996, p.79):
- Preparation – becoming immersed in problematic issues that are interesting and arouse curiosity
- Incubation – ideas churn around below the threshold of consciousness
- Insight – the “Aha!” moment when the puzzle starts to fall together
- Evaluation – deciding if the insight is valuable and worth pursuing
- Elaboration – translating the insight into its final work
The last step, elaboration, as Thomas Edison noted, is the 99% perspiration that balances the 1% inspiration of creativity. It if it’s hard to come up with a great idea, it is much harder turning that idea into an actual product or service that people want.
Check out the source of the above snippet, Don Clark’s web page on creativity. Just quickly review the beginning to get a feel for it. Read it all if it captures your interest or stop when you’ve had enough: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/creativity/creativity.html
For an overview of how the VIPER characteristics reinforce each other, watch Brian Johnson’s 15-min summary of Csikszentmihalyi’s ideas on Creativity. Note that creativity with discipline is something that suffuses the entrepreneurial life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i1nHE9w2Jg — note that about 217 thousand people are subscribed to Brian’s YouTube channel! Csikszentmihaly’s major books “Flow” and “Creativity” are outstanding classics!
BIG IDEA: Creativity, Innovation, and Discipline are inextricably intertwined. They need each other to work. But how do you actually learn to DO this? Here are two validated methods:
- The pre-frontal cortex of your brain that controls your attention and higher-order thinking also serves to keep your focus narrow and on track. When you’re working, it automatically censors divergent ideas so they don’t even enter consciousness! How do you relax your own brain’s censorship of new ideas? You’ll laugh! Studies in creativity have shown that creative ideas come to mind when your brain’s censor is relaxed, tired, or under the influence. The researchers actually said new ideas come more frequently when traveling, when falling asleep or waking up, in a relaxing shower, when tired, and when under the influence of alcohol and relaxing substances (this is not a recommendation to consume dangerous drugs!). So when you need ideas, you can take a walk, change tasks to something relaxing or automatic, or keep a bedside logbook to jot ideas when you’re sleepy.
- To create innovative action plans and problem solutions, a different aspect of your brain comes into play, the unconscious mind. Your conscious brain is severely limited by the number of ideas it can hold at once and by your pre-frontal censor. Your unconscious mind is awesome at putting complex ideas together and weighing the interaction of many variables. It does much of this during sleep. It informs your conscious self through hunches or feelings. For example, would you make your biggest decisions with pure conscious logic? Who to marry, to have children, how to raise them, what job or career to take, divorce? We trust our gut, the feelings that our unconscious mind presents to us after weighing the options. Your conscious censor still has to evaluate the ideas and judge them in the cold light of day. Below is the method Alexander Hamilton used to creatively generate his prodigious output envisioning the national government and constitution that has defined America. It’s a system I’ve used since my 20’s and one used by many creative people.
One who knew his habits of study said of him that when he had a serious object to accomplish, his practice was to reflect on it previously. And when he had gone through this labor, he retired to sleep, without regard for the hour of the night, and, having slept six or seven hours, he rose and having taken strong coffee, seated himself at his table where he would remain six, seven, or eight hours. And the product of his rapid pen required little correction for the press. ~ Sullivan, Public Men of the Revolution, p. 261
“Design” companies like IDEO have made a profitable business out of developing disciplined, creative in-house teams to solve problems of businesses and governments. IDEO was hired to design Peru’s ground-breaking schools to bring world-class education to that nation. Check out IDEO’s home page (browse further if you like ’cause they have a page on their work with Innova): http://ideo.com
What’s LUCK Got to Do With IT? Shouldn’t I AVOID risk?
Casinos don’t like people who try to control their “luck,” but successful entrepreneurs have learned ways to “fill their sails to capture the winds of luck.” Watch Stanford professor of innovation and entrepreneurship, Tina Selig’s, 13-min TED Talk that shares three secrets to prepare yourself to make your own luck: https://www.ted.com/talks/tina_seelig_the_little_risks_you_can_take_to_increase_your_luck (I often listen at 1.25x speed to get the message of a video without losing interest or focus.) Tina is certainly creative — continuously creative. From her video, what can YOU do to maximize your creative ability to be “ready for luck?” … and can you tell she is passionate about what she does? “Passion” is the “P” in VIPER. Over 3 million people watched her talk.
Entrepreneurial Mindset — a step back to Discipline & Habit
To finish our review of creativity, let’s look briefly at how to foster the discipline and habit that supports your creativity and allows you the time and focus to act on it with impact:
- Discipline? or Habit? Three takeaways (from The ONE Thing):
- 1. No need to be “disciplined person,” just be disciplined enough to create a good habit (one habit at a time).
- 2. Creating a habit takes an average of 66 days. After that it takes minimal or no effort to do “the right thing.”
- 3. The rest of your life is easier when the most important things become habit.
John Seeley Brown: Who guides our vision and thought in a new age
JSB is one-of-a-kind. He’s known worldwide as JSB, like we know presidents JFK and FDR. He was Chief Scientist at Xerox when his team created technology you use every day (but that’s for a different discussion). He is one of the most sought-after consultants for Fortune 500 companies and governments. There is no good place to put JSB in a discussion of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He doesn’t fit in any category. His chosen official title is “Master of Confusion” (it’s on his business card!). He helps us to think in ways we never imagined, and GOOD LUCK keeping up with his continual analogies. Watch ALL of his 20-minute keynote at UC Irvine’s Ingenuity 2017 Conference on “We Live in Amazing Times:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pdAC_ikwa8. If you don’t understand part of his talk, join the club. His ideas are some of the most advanced I’ve encountered for a big picture of our culture and of knowledge. (btw, JSB drew all of his own slide graphics!). You may enjoy JSB’s short book, “A New Culture of Learning.”