It's Not Rocket Science

by Stephen Shapiro

For those of you who asked, here is the video of my six minute speech at the TEDx NASA conference. Enjoy.

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Stephen Shapiro is the author of three books, a popular innovation speaker, and is the Chief Innovation Evangelist for Innocentive, the leader in Open Innovation.

Innovation at TEDx NASA

by Stephen Shapiro

This past Friday I had 6 minutes to share a message about innovation with the world at TEDx NASA. It was a fantastic event with 29 speakers, authors, musicians, aerospace engineers, a neuroscientist and more. 1,700 people were in attendance and it is reported that nearly 100,000 people watched via video streaming on the internet.

Given that my typical speech is 45 minutes long, preparing a 6 minute presentation was a bit of a challenge and required me to script it out to make sure I did not go over my allotted time. Below is what I prepared. Within the next two weeks, I will be able to share the actual video footage - where I am sure I said something completely different.


TITLE: SOMETIMES EVEN ROCKET SCIENCE ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE

It's not rocket science.

We hear people use that expression to describe something that's not that complex. And although I would never suggest that aerospace challenges are simple, sometimes, even rocket science isn't rocket science. What I mean by that is sometimes the most creative solutions to aerospace challenges can be found outside the realm of rocket science.

The issue is, you are experts. And your expertise might be the very thing that is preventing you from finding the most creative solutions.

Let me explain why with a simple example.

Think about a time when you lost your keys. After searching everywhere, upon finding them, what did you inevitably say to yourself? "Can you believe it? They were in the last place I looked!" Well of course, who finds something and continues to look for it?

The same thing is true when looking for a solution to a problem. Once your brain finds a solution, it stops looking. And the greater the level of your expertise, the quicker you find a solution. Unfortunately, your idea may not be new, innovative, or the best solution.

The key is to look outside your domain of expertise and to assume that someone else has already solved your problem. Because the odds are, someone HAS solved your problem. So, if you are working on an aerospace challenge, the solution may in fact not be rocket science.

Let me give you a few simple examples.

A high margin item for office supply companies is selling refilled toner cartridges. The challenge is however, very few customers return the used cartridge. During a brainstorming session designed to find creative solutions to this dilemma, I asked the question, "Who else has solved this problem? Who sends you something and is guaranteed that you will send it back?" The first response was the IRS. But the next response was NetFlix. They send you a DVD. You can keep it as long as you want. When you are done you return it and get another one. We investigated and implemented a NetFlix style subscription model for toner cartridges. This worked out great for the company, because they had a 100% return rate on empty cartridges. And customers love it because they never run out of toner and they get great discounts.

It's not rocket science. Someone else solved this problem.

Or consider engineers who have been searching for better ways to locate and seal cracks in gas pipelines. This is a pressing issue for the industry. Then, one day, while a Scottish engineer was working on this issue, he got a paper cut. Unlike most people who would be annoyed, he was thrilled. What he realized is that his finger is like a cracked gas pipeline. By making a connection between capillaries and a pipeline, he was able to quickly develop an inert coagulation ingredient that would seals these cracks.

The solution wasn't rocket science. Someone else, in this case the human body, had already solved this problem.

Or consider a snack food manufacturer that wanted to find a way of reducing the amount of fat in their potato chips. The best solution wasn't found in their laboratory. In fact, the solution wasn't found in any laboratory. The person who discovered the best solution had no experience with food production. He was a musician. He knew that sound vibrations travel through solid objects and that if an object is light enough it, too, will vibrate. The solution was to place speakers above the conveyor belt and use loud music to literally shake the fat out of chips.

Clearly, this was not rocket science.

Quite often the most creative solutions arise when you assume that someone else has already found a solution. When you look outside your domain of expertise.

Or, as Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc, once said, "Creativity is just having enough dots to connect... connect experiences and synthesize new things. The reason creative people are able to do that is that they've had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people."

When you become masterful at connecting dots you find new and creative solutions.

That's the wonderful thing about this conference. They could have put 20 aerospace engineers on the stage. But instead they brought in artists, musicians, authors and neuroscientists. This is a chance for you to connect the dots. To learn from unrelated disciplines. If you have 100 aerospace engineers working on a challenge, the value of adding the 101st would be incremental. But adding a biologist, a neurologist, a nano-technologist, or a musician, may lead to a breakthrough.

[at this point I show a picture and tell a funny story...but you'll have to wait for the video for that]

It is about making connections. It is about connecting the dots. It is about looking outside of your domain of expertise.

You are all experts. And you are admired for your deep understanding of complex technical issues. Having said that, sometimes, the key to creative thinking is to recognize the best solutions aren't always rocket science.

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Stephen Shapiro is the author of three books, a popular innovation speaker, and is the Chief Innovation Evangelist for Innocentive, the leader in Open Innovation.

Innovation Perspectives - Engineering versus Intangible Value

This is the first of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Roadblocks and the Critical Relationship Between Marketing and Engineering in the Cause of Advancing Innovation'. To kick it off, here is my perspective:


by Braden Kelley

Let me start off by recommending that you watch the movie I've embedded, as it does a great job of describing how there is often an engineering solution to a problem and a marketing solution to a problem. This in part explains why there is often a tension between marketing and engineering when it comes to new product development - they see different solutions, assign value differently, and view success in divergent ways. So, please enjoy the video, and my article will continue below it:





So in the future, with the problem at hand, you might want to ask yourself - "Is the problem best solved by changes to the real value, redefining the intrinsic value provided, or a bit of both?"

Of course it is very hard for people to ask these questions honestly as they have a default response, but asking them in a cross-fuctional environment may yield a more holistic and informed response. And after all, many of the barriers that people tend to erect in the achievement of something are often because they didn't feel involved in the decision-making process.

So, what are some of the barriers that people erect in a sometimes tension-filled environment?

1. Isolation - You just avoid communicating with the other side as much as possible


2. Stonewall - You just do what you would do anyways and ignore the input from the other side


3. Passive Aggression - You consciously choose to behave in a way that will cause the effort to fail, so that ideally you get your way instead


4. Build a Fortress - You build complex written rules of engagement for your department saying that it has to be this way because you're too busy and these rules will help you be more organized


5. Omission - You take the inputs but then you don't do anything with them (marketing doesn't promote a feature, or engineering doesn't fully develop it

The biggest danger to the cause of advancing innovation when it comes to the engineering and marketing departments is that the relationship develops into one without constructive conflict and without healthy collaboration. For innovation to be repeatable in an organization these two sides must share openly, have their perspectives valued, and contribute to a conversation. Marketing and engineering hear different aspects of the voice of the customer in their interactions with them, and they approach solutions to problems in different ways.

I would even argue that there is probably no more important set of cross-functional relationships than those between marketing and engineering, and that their health will determine the future success or failure of the organization. The executive team should consciously monitoring the health of these relationships, because when they start pulling in opposite directions, the entire organization could be ripped apart.

What directions are these two organizations pulling in your organization?


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Roadblocks and the Critical Relationship Between Marketing and Engineering in the Cause of Advancing Innovation' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Tim Brown - Powerful Link Between Creativity and Play

I came across this great video from Tim Brown of IDEO about creativity and play that I thought I would share with you:





It is interesting as you watch the video to think about what narrowing behaviors you've taken on as an adult, and to think about how you might step outside them to achieve greater creativity.

As I was watching the video, I found myself wondering why design is not part of the core curriculum for students growing up and going through elementary school and high school.

I know there are movements out there to merge b-school and d-school thinking, but it's a lot more work to get people to unlearn old behaviors and learn new ones. How much more efficient and enjoyable would our society be if we all thought like designers?

What do you think?

Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Did you miss Dan Ariely at the World Innovation Forum?

If you happened to miss Dan Ariely's talk at the World Innovation Forum (which was quite good), I managed to find two videos from TED that taken together comprise most of the talk he gave.


Video #1 - "Dan Ariely - Are we in control of our own decisions?"




Video #2 - "Dan Ariely - Our buggy moral code"




You can find my Top 10 Insights from Dan Ariely's talk at the World Innovation Forum along with the slides from the presentation.


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Seth Godin on the Tribes We Lead

You may have heard about Seth Godin's concept of tribes. Well, here is a video from the TED conference that lays it all out:



As we move on from the mass marketing epoch of history, we move into an epoch where there will be many tribes, organized around different interests, that will be looking for leaders and ideas that they believe in and actually want to promote.

When you are looking to affect change - Can you find the heretics? - The people who are not "sheepwalkers" (half asleep and following along) that will help to lead a movement


The flow of the tribe methodology boils down to:

1. Telling a story to people who want to hear it
2. Connecting a tribe
3. Leading a movement
4. Making change


Properly pulled together, you will be left with a product or service that has a story to tell. A story that the consumers of that product or service will love to tell for you.

How to Change Everything

When looking to affect change you must ask these three questions:

1. Who are you upsetting?
   (If you're not upsetting anyone, you're not changing the status quo)


2. Who are you connecting?
   (A lot of people are only in it for the connections)


3. Who are you leading?
   (Without a clear focus on this, change won't come)

Tribal leaders CHALLENGE the status quo, they build a CULTURE (defining who's in or out), they have CURIOSITY, they CONNECT people, they have CHARISMA (this comes from being a leader), and they COMMIT to the cause.


So, what do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Sixth Sense

You may have seen a video I posted about a wearable computer designed by some MIT students.

I just came across a TED talk from Pattie Maes that explains the details of the innovation you saw in that video, while also showcasing more of what the technology is capable of and what the device costs to build with off the shelf parts. It's definitely worth a look:



Do you think people will want to wear something like this around?
(post a comment)

@innovate

Why can't we grow new energy?

Here is another very interesting video from Juan Enriquez, futurist, speaking at TED 18 months ago. The topic of this one is agriculture and energy, and whether or not we can approach hydrocarbons with biology instead of brute force in the same way that we have innovated in agriculture over the years, and as a result drive efficiency.

Check it out:



What do you think?

@innovate

Beyond the crisis, mindboggling science and the arrival of Homo Evolutis

Here is an interesting video of Juan Enriquez, Futurist, speaking about some of the startling things he sees in our future as innovations in robotics and the life sciences collide with our country's current financial situation.

Will our current innovation trajectory create a new hominid species capable of controlling its own evolution?

Check it out:



What do you think?

@innovate

Elizabeth Gilbert Thinks Differently About Creative Genius

Here is an interesting video of Elizabeth Gilbert speaking about the impossible things we expect from geniuses and artists. She also shares the radical idea that all of us "have" a genius. It's well worth the time investment.

Check it out:



What do you think?

@innovate

Arthur Benjamin and his Amazing Mathemagic

Here is an interesting video of mathemagician Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares, solves another massive mental equation and guesses a few birthdays. He tries to show you how he does it at the end, but I still can't imagine being capable of replicating the amazing feats he pulls off.

You have to check this out:



What do you think?

@innovate

David Merrill Demonstrates Siftables - The Toy Blocks That Think

Here is an interesting video of MIT grad student David Merrill demonstrating Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Does this technology have any promise as an alternative human-computer interface?

Check it out:



What do you think?

@innovate