My guitar teacher of some years back, Tom Fryer, had a bit of sage advice. It’s pointless to try to be original, as someone will always have had the idea before you. A more productive approach is to simply plow your own furrow; focus on the problems you want to solve, steal ideas shamelessly if they seem useful, and invent what you need to fill the gaps.

He was obviously talking of the cultural approach that both Jimi Hendrix and Jonathan Ive take to their work. (And which I hope I take too.) The key is to make it an institutional culture: Apple with the iPod rather than Apple with the Newton, as you quite rightly point out.

Implicit in this is the acceptance of failure. Or, as economists are want to say, “if you don’t fail occasionally, then your not optimising”. You need to be willing to try something different, even when popular opinion is against you. I remember when the first MacBook was released (just to stick with the Apple motif, and date myself) where the keyboard was near the hinge rather than away from it. The reviewers all laughed at Apple, but history is now laughing at the reviewers. (And many of these reviewers also said the iPhone would fail.) If you want the hits, then you need to risk the misses.

It’s interesting to consider the current startup movement in this light: a movement where (a first) failure is considered a badge of honour. But with the cost of entry so low (you can start something of a mid-sized credit card these days), is seems that these failures are not meaningful. It’s more like playing the pokies/one-armed-bandits. I put a dollar in and pull the lever, and then repeat until I either hit the jackpot or run out of dollars. Most people run out of cash, while the few that hit the jackpot are lauded as gods when, really, they were just lucky. (It’s great that they were lucky, but let’s admit that it was luck rather than genius that got them there.)

The cult of the individual, for me, is often a symptom of the eternal quest for the silver bullet. “If I buy this, then all will come good.” The Apple story is interesting: was the difference between the iPod and the Newton Steve Jobs, something else, or a combination? People flock to those individuals who they think will succeed. I’m sure that Mr Ives gets a job offer a day, but could he have the same level of success in an environment other than Apple? VCs are particularly notorious for this hero worship.

Twitter is a great example all of this in action. It cost little to start and, despite what the founders like to claim, there doesn’t seem to be a grand plan. The fact that they had done something before meant that they had more than a credit card available to kick-start the company, and they could also more easily attract funding. They’ve done the obvious things to make money (sell access to the data and, just wait for it, the personal information they have), but are yet to prove that they’ll provide a return on investment. (And the VCs have little to say other than “they’re smart, they’ll be able to do it”.) Twitter seems to spend most of its time adding features that advertisers like, but which the community ignores. Most of the innovation is from the community, with people finding interesting ways to use the service, rather than from Twitter itself.

Unfortunately I don’t think we’re ever going to overcome the cult of the individual / desire for the silver bullet. It’s probably a symptom of the competitive culture which dominates society today. We want the quick fix which provides the sure win. What if the key to innovation is not to be competitive? Is that what we should be looking for in these case studies: a playfulness and desire to experiment, the drive to be better was what we do, without the need to “be the biggest and/or best”. Obliquity.

Another great quote from my guitar teacher was something like:

Don’t ever define yourself a “the best”, or try and be “the best”. It guarantees disappointment. You could be the most popular guitarist in the world when you take a night of to have a few beers in an armpit bar, and the bloke who gets up on stage can just blow you away. Try to do something you find interesting, in a context you find enjoyable, and be the best you can be.

Which is really just another way of saying “innovation is a cultural activity”

Take for example the use of the iPhone and the Newton in your set of examples. One of your key points can be driven home even strongly by slightly rephrasing what you wrote, as follows, “For every Apple with their iPhone there’s an Apple with a Newton.”

What makes this particular example germane to the discussion is this: Jonathan Ive worked on the industrial design of both the iPhone and the Newton – an observation that is almost never mentioned, yet one that I think is really important.

One could respond by saying that, effectively, the Apple of the Newton and Scully was a different company. But there is still an important lesson to be gained: simply hiring a world-class designer into your company does not, in and of itself, make your company any more innovative.

But what about the current Apple of Jobs and Ive? How can we trust any purported lessons about innovation based on it if we only look at their successes? To me, their failures, and how they were managed, are as – if not more – enlightening than a study of their successes. How often do you hear or see informed commentary that speaks to the “hockey-puck” mouse on the original bondo blue iMac (I keep one hanging in my office), or the G4 Cube?

I mention this not to belittle Apple. Just the opposite. I firmly believe that failure is essential to innovation. If you don’t have periodic failure, you are almost certainly not pushing hard enough. You are simply not taking the risk that is part and parcel of great innovation. It is how you handle such risk, and the periodic failures, that is so important for an innovative company to succeed. For example, look how fast those round (move your hand up, watch your cursor go left) mice were replaced. If you don’t study the failures, you will miss this kind of thing, and blindly proceed under the assumption that great innovative companies bat 1000. That is a recipe for failure, not success.

Finally, in this world that celebrates the cult of the individual, and wants to believe in super-heroes, in innovation in technology, we tend to believe that great innovation grows out of a vacuum. This, again, is a reason to push beyond the surface in studying any single company’s performance and practice, insofar as innovation is concerned.

In my opinion, we need to get far better at assessing innovation in technology the same way that we do in music or painting, for example. Everybody knew the roots that Jimi Hendrix drew on in his music. That enhanced, rather than detracted from our appreciation of his innovative playing. One could say the same thing for any great painter, architect, film-maker, etc. No literate person would delude themselves that the whole thing came out of their head.

Yet, this is largely how far too much writing about technology is approached. As a test, see how many articles about the iPhone discuss it in terms of the world’s first smart phone, the 1993 Simon, developed jointly by IBM and Bell South? Compare the approach of the iPod Mini with that of the 1928 release of the Vanity Kodak camera, designed by Walter Dorwin Teague. Likewise, look at the designs the Dieter Rams did for Braun in the 1950’s and 60’s and compare it to numerous features in the iPod and iMac lines. The point is this: These and other examples represent the licks that Jonathan Ive was riffing on. They are to him what Muddy Waters, among others, was to Jimi Hendrix. Any discussion about design thinking that does not embrace this aspect of great design and the design process is incomplete. And, rather than take away from either Jonathan or Jimi, the more one understands this aspect of the process, the more one learns from, enjoys, and respects their work.

In a way, the message about innovation that is too often lost is this: Stop trying to be so damn original. Innovation is as much about prospecting for oldies but goodies as it is about invention. Look at it this way: if it is good enough for Jimi and Jonathan, then it is certainly okay for you and me.

But, without careful case studies of potent examples, we will miss this. Overall, this is why the term “design thinking” is so misleading. The very term suggests that it is a cognitive activity (“thinking”), when it is as much, or more, a cultural one.

In that light, I really like good writing that makes me think. That is why I liked your piece so much. The above is what it prompted. Perhaps in this collective act, itself, we have our own case study: one that shows illustrates that precious link between the cognitive and the social.

Thanks. Nice piece.

Take for example the use of the iPhone and the Newton in your set of examples. One of your key points can be driven home even strongly by slightly rephrasing what you wrote, as follows, “For every Apple with their iPhone there’s an Apple with a Newton.”

What makes this particular example germane to the discussion is this: Jonathan Ive worked on the industrial design of both the iPhone and the Newton – an observation that is almost never mentioned, yet one that I think is really important.

One could respond by saying that, effectively, the Apple of the Newton and Scully was a different company. But there is still an important lesson to be gained: simply hiring a world-class designer into your company does not, in and of itself, make your company any more innovative.

But what about the current Apple of Jobs and Ive? How can we trust any purported lessons about innovation based on it if we only look at their successes? To me, their failures, and how they were managed, are as – if not more – enlightening than a study of their successes. How often do you hear or see informed commentary that speaks to the “hockey-puck” mouse on the original bondo blue iMac (I keep one hanging in my office), or the G4 Cube?

I mention this not to belittle Apple. Just the opposite. I firmly believe that failure is essential to innovation. If you don’t have periodic failure, you are almost certainly not pushing hard enough. You are simply not taking the risk that is part and parcel of great innovation. It is how you handle such risk, and the periodic failures, that is so important for an innovative company to succeed. For example, look how fast those round (move your hand up, watch your cursor go left) mice were replaced. If you don’t study the failures, you will miss this kind of thing, and blindly proceed under the assumption that great innovative companies bat 1000. That is a recipe for failure, not success.

Finally, in this world that celebrates the cult of the individual, and wants to believe in super-heroes, in innovation in technology, we tend to believe that great innovation grows out of a vacuum. This, again, is a reason to push beyond the surface in studying any single company’s performance and practice, insofar as innovation is concerned.

In my opinion, we need to get far better at assessing innovation in technology the same way that we do in music or painting, for example. Everybody knew the roots that Jimi Hendrix drew on in his music. That enhanced, rather than detracted from our appreciation of his innovative playing. One could say the same thing for any great painter, architect, film-maker, etc. No literate person would delude themselves that the whole thing came out of their head.

Yet, this is largely how far too much writing about technology is approached. As a test, see how many articles about the iPhone discuss it in terms of the world’s first smart phone, the 1993 Simon, developed jointly by IBM and Bell South? Compare the approach of the iPod Mini with that of the 1928 release of the Vanity Kodak camera, designed by Walter Dorwin Teague. Likewise, look at the designs the Dieter Rams did for Braun in the 1950’s and 60’s and compare it to numerous features in the iPod and iMac lines. The point is this: These and other examples represent the licks that Jonathan Ive was riffing on. They are to him what Muddy Waters, among others, was to Jimi Hendrix. Any discussion about design thinking that does not embrace this aspect of great design and the design process is incomplete. And, rather than take away from either Jonathan or Jimi, the more one understands this aspect of the process, the more one learns from, enjoys, and respects their work.

In a way, the message about innovation that is too often lost is this: Stop trying to be so damn original. Innovation is as much about prospecting for oldies but goodies as it is about invention. Look at it this way: if it is good enough for Jimi and Jonathan, then it is certainly okay for you and me.

But, without careful case studies of potent examples, we will miss this. Overall, this is why the term “design thinking” is so misleading. The very term suggests that it is a cognitive activity (“thinking”), when it is as much, or more, a cultural one.

In that light, I really like good writing that makes me think. That is why I liked your piece so much. The above is what it prompted. Perhaps in this collective act, itself, we have our own case study: one that shows illustrates that precious link between the cognitive and the social.

Thanks. Nice piece.

I’m struggling these days to understand how to define innovation other than retrospectively (isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing). We can pin down invention, customer need, product development, marketing etc. — all the elements to make an innovation successful — but picking an innovation seems the impossible task.

Efforts to define and codify innovation are like capturing lightening in a bottle. You can’t systematise a process which has a large degree of luck to it. What you can do, though, is to be prepared. This is where tools like design thinking fit in.

The model I like for innovation is the approach to basket ball described by The no-stars all star. Understand the inputs, spend your energy wisely, and realise that this is a numbers game which requires a great deal of luck.

My own take on innovation is that innovation always solves a problem. If not, it will inevitably create one. And each time you consider a solution, you need to reflect on the cultural, political, and technological consequences of your action.

Bill Buxton, a Microsoft scholar, has a great story about just this in which he describes how the Enfield folks developed a breach-loading rifle that almost cost the British most of their empire back in the 1850s. There was a video available of this story, but I cannot find it now.

Basically, Enfield developed small pre-measured packets of gunpowder that could be torn open with the teeth and poured directly into the breach of the gun. The paper was greased so that the powder remained dry.

But who were the British fighting against (and alongside) back in the 1850s? Hindi and Muslims. And what was the paper greased with? Animal fat from pigs and cows. The result? The weapon worked brilliantly, but the non-English troops revolted – a Hindu or a Muslim does NOT want to put anything associated with a pig or a cow near the mouth! So, a technological innovation was a failure because it did not take into account cultural needs and nearly led to dire political consequences for the British.

I don't know if you've seen my own work in this area, but there are a couple of presentations on innovation on Slideshare. There were also videos on Brightcove, but I think these have disappeared. Here's a working Slideshare link:
http://www.slideshare.net/ericreiss/reiss-on-in…

My own main point is that invention is often mistaken for innovation. Actually, I see a clear progression from invention to innovation to best practice. And the next period of innovation often builds on previously determined best practices. I suspect this is one of the reasons design thinking goes wrong – designers insist on thinking outside the box whereas innovation sometimes serves just as creatively by making a box bigger and better.