September 2003

January 2004

Innovation Tips

…for thriving on collaborative innovation.

=========================================

What If…?—The Catalytic Question

Creativity isn’t that difficult, really, as long as we ask the right questions. If the question we ask is, “How have we always done it?” then we will kill creativity every time. But if the question we ask begins with the two simple words “what if,” we lay the groundwork for creativity, and for sometimes profoundly important and effective innovation.

The words “what if” are stepping-stones from what is to what is possible, and we can all use them. Creative people, hard-wired to look for new possibilities, tend to rely on these stones almost unconsciously. Those two words initiate the indispensable catalytic questions that frequently lead to new, simple, elegant, profound, creative approaches to virtually everything. Creative people may rely on them unconsciously, but all of us can learn to make them part of our conscious dialogue.

Sometimes catalytic questions seem absurd, but if pursued, lead to remarkable accomplishments. The question “What if paint could explode?” led to the development of an inert chemical additive that facilitated the ready removal of house paint. “What if we could put a man on the moon in ten years?” initiated the astonishing NASA program under the Kennedy administration that did put a man on the moon. “What if planes were invisible?” led to the nearly incredible development of stealth aircraft that are virtually invisible to radar.

Seemingly irrational questions free us from the implicit rules that tend to bind our thinking. Once freed from those unconscious constraints, we can free-associate to other, more practical, ideas. It is much easier to bring an idea back to a practical application than it is to free ideas from the mental box of practicality that constrains them.

When this sort of wide-open thinking is used by groups, everyone involved has to exercise some patience. Absurd “What if..?” questions nearly always arouse precipitous judgment from the bean-counters wearing the green eye-shades. And it is certainly easy to ridicule the seemingly ridiculous; any fool can do it. It is much easier to criticize than to compose.

But it is so much more fun to take the imaginative excursions that open new perspectives, that free us from the ordinary, standard, unimaginative way in which it has always been done before.

The Dutch seem to have a lot of fun thinking this way, even at the level of city government, and I love one of their more recent creative ideas. The use of the public urinals must have been getting out of hand, for they were in need of increased janitorial attention. One can only imagine the sort of “What if…” questions they must have generated to arrive at their innovative, simple idea: They painted a fly at the bottom of the urinal. This seemed to solve their problem; it turned a normal bodily function into a sport.

There is no telling where that one catalytic question—What if?—will lead. It put a man on the moon, made an airplane invisible, and effortlessly maintained the public men’s rooms in a city in Holland. What if you used it more in your organization?

_______________________________________

INNOVATION TIPS is a monthly letter provided by

PARTNERS for INNOVATION, INC.

To subscribe, please register at our web site: http://www.partnersfi.com.

To unsubscribe, please reply with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject box.

We can be reached by e-mail at: info@partnersfi.com or by phone at 1.419.872.7140

is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute INNOVATION

TIPS provided that this copyright notice and full

information about contacting the authors are attached.