Innovation isn’t having ideas, it’s about how you try the ideas and what you learn

So many people think innovation is about having great ideas.

It’s not.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has had million dollar ideas. Companies can make a long idea list simply by asking employees.

When they do, they are often overwhelmed by the large number of ideas they receive. How do they pick the which ones to try?

That gets closer to what I believe is the secret to good innovation: it’s about how you try the ideas and what you learn when you try them.

Good innovators are better at trying out more ideas and learning as they do.

In companies that don’t innovate well, the reflexive reaction to a new idea is to shut it down. What will your co-worker say if you tell them your idea? In bad innovation cultures, they will usually take the wind out of your sails by giving their opinion on why your idea won’t work.

In companies that innovate well, the reflexive reaction to a new idea is to ask how we can find out if there’s something to it?

In these cultures, it seems understood that “you don’t know ’til you try,” the most successful ideas were often happy accidents and even if the idea doesn’t work, which most won’t, you might learn something that will.

Bad innovators can’t fathom how to try so many ideas. They assume they must pare the list down to a handful.

Good innovators don’t even notice all the the ways they’ve created to let ideas be tried and let successful ideas bubble up and learn from failures.

I’ve worked in both cultures. The good innovation culture is a lot more fun and a lot more successful.

How media puts thoughts in your head: Reverse inception

The movie Inception, was about invading someone’s dream to plant a thought in their head so that they would think it was their own. Neat trick.

The media pulls off something similar, but in reverse. They put a thought in your head that IS your own, but make you think they told you.

The trick works by presenting verifiable facts to you in such a way that the conclusion seems obvious. So obvious, that you think the news story made the conclusion. When you tell someone else about it, you tell it as if the news said it.

Here’s a simple example.

“I post things on the internet. Now, helicopters are flying over my house.”

These are two facts.

Many people will translate it this way:

“Posting things on the internet” = conspiracy theorist.

“Helicopters flying over my house” = The government or elites are coming after me, so my conspiracy theories must be hitting close to home.

After reading that, you might tell a friend, “Seth thinks he has the government coming after him for his conspiracy theories.”

Notice, I didn’t say that. I posted two facts. Posting things on the internet can mean a lot, like posting vacation photos to Facebook. And, who doesn’t have helicopters flying over their house at some point?

If your friend read the the same thing and points out, “No, he didn’t say that.” You might respond, “Of course that’s what he meant. Why else would he write that? If he’s just stating two random and common facts, that would be boring.”

Notice what you’re doing here.

You are talking yourself into believing that your thought was something I said.

Whenever you find yourself doing that, stop. You have fallen for a mind trick.

What are the results? What is your plan? What is your progress?

When is the last time you heard these questions in regards to politics?

It’s probably been awhile.

We’re too busy arguing over which side is evil or how they can be associated with the latest national news crime or disaster, or about the real context of something that was taken out-of context.

We get so wrapped up in those discussions, that we forget to ask these basic questions.

Of course, that is by design. It’s the age old s vs. them tactic they use to divide and conquer. Or, as pro wrestling has perfected, the hero and the heel.

So, much of our discourse is at the pro wrestling level.

Some products I regret buying because they inundate me with email afterwards

They are good products.

But, I don’t need to hear from the company 3 times a day.