There is truth and beauty to be found in the greatest and smallest of things. Reflect for a moment on the life of a single cell, which by itself can exist as an independent organism capable of reproduction and interaction with its environment which we call life.

Some cells only live for a few hours while others can survive dormant for millions of years, and all of them are a part of the miracle we call life. It’s a miracle because it takes 100 trillion cells, that’s more than all the galaxies in the universe, to create an adult human being.

It’s a miracle because each and every cell serves an essential and meaningful purpose in making us unique, whether we fully understand it or not.

Our planet is a miracle too. All the individual parts of our ecosystem and all the species of life serve an essential and meaningful purpose in making our planet unique, whether we fully understand it or not. Like us, our planet is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

We can learn so much simply by admiring what is already within ourselves.

Innovation is popular if not well understood, we recognise it when we see it and every man, his dog and their company aspires to be innovative. To cite Wikipedia, “an innovation is a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental and emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations.” However, I’m not so much interested in what innovation is as how to be innovative, which requires above all else a willingness to act on your ideas.

Information vs Knowledge

To understand innovation we must first differentiate between explicit knowledge (information) and tacit knowledge. Information is data: a description, diagram or instruction which which has been recorded. Information is convenient because it’s something tangible which can be copied and transmitted.

Knowledge, however, is tacit and intangible, perhaps best described as our individual understanding of “how” things are done. If you want to be innovative then it’s not good enough to simply remember information. You have to transform it into knowledge. Tacit knowledge is not written down and thus often difficult to explain and transfer from one individual to another.

Understanding this difference is very important in today’s society because we suffer from information-overload (yet so many bad decisions are made because we don’t have the right knowledge). It’s dangerous because we can waste a lot of time, energy and brain cells by trying to understand information in the wrong way. It’s not about the quantity or quality of the facts you have or even how efficiently you can process them, but how quickly you can put the information you have into practice, because knowledge can only be created through first hand experience.

It is experience and tacit knowledge that enable a pilot to fly and land a jumbo jet, not the operating manual. It’s a doctor’s training and practice, not their textbooks that save lives.

The Knowledge Conversion Process

Japanese professors Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) developed the following matrix which visualises how information and knowledge is transformed, in other words: how innovation happens when we turn information into experience and back again. It’s the best theory I have found so far to explain how innovation actually happens on a practical and individual scale. You can apply it without needing an R&D team or budget at all!

The Knowledge Conversion Process

Starting from the top right quadrant moving clockwise:

1. Tacit knowledge and experience can be made explicit by externalising and recording it as information.
2. Information can be combined, integrated and distributed.
3. Internalisation transforms information into knowledge through practice and experience.
4. It’s also possible to share our tacit knowledge with others through socialisation.

It is only when we have moved through all four quadrants of this model that our own individual learning process is truly complete. That is when we have actually improved something. Externalising our own learning and experience is important because it allows ourselves and others to repeat or start the process, thus enabling innovation to take place.

A Simple Formula

Knowledge is what makes the world go round. Information itself doesn’t travel far, but people are compelled to share knowledge and insights. It’s the difference between Wikipedia (information) and Twitter (socialisation) on the web. My simplified formula for innovation is therefore:

Innovation = (Information + Knowledge + Socialisation) x T

Information, knowledge and socialisation are easy to do once you know where to look, what to do and who to work with. The successful innovator understands that what really matters is the variable T, how quickly and how many times you can repeat the process over your competitors.

The way I prefer to tackle innovative ideas and creative projects is to find the best ways of putting the theory at hand into practice as soon as possible. It’s often necessary to go back to the drawing board, or choose an alternate strategy because the experience gained from practice shows you how and why it won’t work. If you are the one investing time and money, wouldn’t you want to know this sooner rather than later?

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin

If you have a big idea, stop dreaming and find a way to start working on just a small part of it or you won’t even complete one cycle of the innovation process.

The Killers of Innovation

It would also be amiss of me not to mention the things that stifle and stop the process of innovation. These are a combination of environmental and personal factors which affect an organisation’s and individual’s ability to be innovative.

Rules and Bureaucracy
Rules themselves are information, created to guide decisions and actions in the absence of individuals being trusted to use their own knowledge. Too many rules prevents individuals from internalising their own knowledge and thus actually learning anything new for themselves. Innovators don’t follow rules, they rely on their knowledge, experience and intuition. Rules kill innovation. Period.

Too many layers of bureaucracy will also prevent innovation because tacit knowledge cannot always be externalised to an outsider who does not share the same experience as the innovator. Trying to intervene and micromanage during the knowledge conversion process will only produce a lot of meaningless jargon that has been lost in translation.

Fear
Fear comes in many shapes and sizes: fear of failure, fear of breaking the rules (above), fear of ridicule and Australia’s own Tall Poppy Syndrome (the tendency to disparage conspicuously successful people). This is possibly the single biggest killer of innovation because it originates and resides within the self. Innovators can’t do their best work and many won’t even try if they must operate in a culture of fear. Be bold and brave as an innovator by understanding your fears and not letting them overtake your intuition and confidence.

Image: Creating Passionate Users Blog

Pessimism and Un-constructive Criticism
Since socialisation is such an integral part of the knowledge conversion process, receiving the right feedback from the right people is crucial. Innovation thrives in an environment of open and trusting collaboration where new ideas can be explored to their full potential. In my own experience, who you share your ideas with is just as important (if not more) as your idea itself. Choose whose feedback and constructive criticism you listen to very carefully as a pessimistic partner could be your worst enemy. An optimistic partner will encourage you to reach for the stars. Be an optimist yourself because if you don’t believe in your idea no one else will either, and if you can’t learn to appreciate someone else’s idea then you are also part of the problem.

Perfection
There is nothing wrong with seeking perfection as long as you understand it is a continuous process. Don’t spend years in the dark hiding your baby from the rest of the world until you think it’s perfect. Launch early and be ready for feedback. Nothing is perfect, it’s about the journey and not the destination so be sure to enjoy it or you may find yourself sorely disappointed.

Now that you have this information, what you do with it is in your hands.

References
Nonaka, Ikujiro; Takeuchi, Hirotaka (1995). The knowledge creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Here’s what your teachers probably never taught you in school.

In ancient Greece, the name Sophist was given to teachers who specialised in the teaching of philosophy and rhetoric. Since Athenian democracy gave every citizen the opportunity to speak on national affairs, advancement in politics was largely dependent upon an individual’s rhetorical skills and their ability to speak persuasively. Many Sophists were well-paid for their services by students who wished to learn the practical art of persuasion and consequently improve their status in Athenian society. The Sophists were also the world’s first lawyers as a result of their highly developed argumentation skills.

The School of Athens by Raphael

Many Sophists were non-Athenian travelers who saw the gods as man-made creations and believed in the principles of nature rather than the divine. Their questioning of established authority and beliefs, as well as their wealth, eventually stirred resentment from the public against their practices and ideas. Philosophy and rhetoric eventually parted ways, so that Sophists became known as teachers of persuasion and popular public speakers by the time of the Roman empire.

Thus, the modern definition (from Wikipedia) of sophism is rather derogatory and often associated with deception:

“A sophism is taken as a specious argument used for deceiving someone. It might be crafted to seem logical while actually being wrong, or it might use difficult words and complicated sentences to intimidate the audience into agreeing, or it might appeal to the audience’s prejudices and emotions rather than logic. The goal of a sophism is often to make the audience believe the writer or speaker to be smarter than he or she actually is.”

Does this sound familiar? It’s because the art of sophism and rhetoric lives on in our politicians and advertising agencies, not that anyone ever calls it that or admits to practicing it (because persuasion doesn’t work if someone knows you’re doing it to them). It’s also because our schools no longer teach anything of the sort, preferring instead to train our young minds in the infallible laws of science and logic. Yet we are bombarded by sophism in every aspect of our lives and its effects can be devastating especially if we don’t even know that we were hit in the first place, let alone what we were hit with.

Firstly, it is necessary to understand that our behaviour can often be predicted (and consequently influenced) by the following factors:

• Coercion – involuntary change in behaviour that requires the presence of a threat
• Persuasion – induces temporary behaviour change through communication
• Education – behaviour change is persistent and sometimes influenced by values and attitudes
• Faith – indoctrinated beliefs by religion and propaganda that is highly resistant to change

By now you are either wondering what these techniques are or wanting to learn and use them in tomorrow night’s plan to conquer the world. The following theories and techniques are persuasive and therefore won’t make somebody your slave for life, but they can be useful in many situations when you need that extra little nudge. Or to catch out the weasel who’s trying to rip you off.

*** I’ve decided to postpone the rest of this post until I receive enough interest from readers of my blog. So get in touch with me if you’d like to read the rest of this post.

In the meantime, I recommend Rory Sutherland’s entertaining TED talk to help digest what you’ve just read. Yes he’s an Ogilvy ad man, but that’s also why you should listen and learn.

President Obama continues to impress me because I believe one of the essential responsibilities of a great leader is to be a good role model. In this relatively short talk to high school students, he has taught some life lessons that all students should learn in their lives (and we are all students our whole lives).

• Choose to take responsibility for your own life
• Being successful is hard, you have to work at your goals
• The most successful people have had the most failures
• You can’t let your failures define you, you have to let them teach you
• You become good at things through hard work
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help, it’s a sign of strength
• Don’t ever give up on yourself

It’s easy to be lectured to, but Obama’s words are weighty because he is a leader whose actions speak even louder than his words. It’s never too late and you’re never too old to learn something new.