What’s the real secret to innovation?

‘Innovation’ has been a huge buzz word in recent years. As new technologies have disrupted traditional ways of working, many industries have looked to innovate more and find new ways of doing things.

The word ‘innovation’ can sound appealing, exciting and interesting, particularly if it unveils new and faster ways of doing things, new products, or provides solutions to existing problems.

However, is innovation always necessary, or is it a way of hiding our unhelpful habits, which if changed, could alleviate some of the need to innovate in the first place?

The rush to innovate

The desire to innovate often arises through an impulsive reaction to what we see others around us doing, or to what others have that we don’t have.

Natural human curiosity and our competitive nature means that we are constantly looking to evolve and find new ways of doing things. Alongside that, there can also be an element of ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ and not wanting to be perceived as ‘falling behind the pack’ or ‘failing to innovate’, particularly where our perception from ‘media’ of all forms plays such a prominent role in how we perceive success.

Whilst there’s no doubt that innovation has contributed hugely to the development of society (for example, developments in supply chains, medicine and transport), if we feel a ‘pressure to innovate’, there is a danger that the resulting innovation itself won’t be well thought through and that the end product simply masks existing underlying issues, which fail to be resolved through implementation of the innovation.

So how might that be addressed?

Stopping before innovating – what habits are contributing to the problem?

To eliminate the pressure to innovate, before considering any new innovation idea it’s worth stopping to think:

• what’s the existing problem?
• what human habits are contributing to that problem?
• are other people aware of their unhelpful habits?
• can better communication, awareness and co-operation lead to those habits falling away to allow better habits to surface that alleviate the underlying problem?
• how can I raise awareness in a way that allows others to understand the true impact of their habits in a constructive way?
• if the innovation is introduced, will those habits remain and if so, could the short term gains through innovation be wiped out by not addressing the habits that contributed to the problem in the first place?

In that way, we can begin to assess how we contribute to our own problems and think through the issues that our habits contribute to more rationally.

It is of paramount importance to recognise that innovation isn’t all about shiny new technology, artificial intelligence or the latest gadget. It can also be an idea or new habit that prevents our existing unhelpful habits from creating problems which we have brought upon ourselves in the first place.

Old habits die hard – the importance of education alongside innovation

Of course, unfortunately, our old and bad habits often die hard. The impact of things like smoking, heavy drinking and lack of exercise all have an impact on our health and whilst innovation has given rise to nicotine patches, non-alcoholic beers and slimming clubs, unless the underlying habit dies by using the innovation, in the end, the person affected may be no healthier as a result of it.

Similarly, any other form of innovation in the workplace won’t fulfil its potential or be fully sustainable, if existing ways of working and thinking don’t change to complement its use.

As such, education and awareness are absolutely key to innovating in a way that provides useful and helpful products, rather than creating products which mask bigger underlying problems. Of course that’s not to say that innovation which helps to eradicate unhelpful habits isn’t going to be really useful. But if it doesn’t eliminate all poor working practices or thinking within society which have a detrimental effect, then the underlying problems never disappear.

Creating more solid layers of innovation

So perhaps the best forms of innovation in the future will be those that allow the breathing space within the innovation process to stop, think and ask what is the problem we’re trying to address and what are the human habits that give rise to that issue in the first place?

Facing our unhelpful or bad habits up front allows the opportunity for critical, unbiased and constructive thinking and provides us all with the opportunity to think through how we can stop those habits from creating problems in the way that we work or live our lives. In doing so, this also provides a more sustainable platform on which we can improve and develop more helpful innovation.

Is there a real secret to innovation?

The real beauty in thinking about the impact of our unhelpful habits is that when we’re aware of the harm they create, it allows us the opportunity to stop them and create better ways of working and living.

Perhaps true innovation lies not in ‘trying to innovate’, but within our own awareness and understanding. The more aware we are of how we interact with one another, the more we can start to understand each other.

So ultimately, the real secret to innovating may lie in simply letting go of our habits which put the unnecessary brakes on each other. In doing so, perhaps one day, we could all free ourselves from unnecessary problems and anxieties and take off & fly much closer towards our true human potential.