I recently finished Scott Berkun’s The Myths of Innovation. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read - but also incredibly insightful . Berkun’s book is a must for anyone who tracks in the area of ideas (pretty much anyone who is trying to be creative - in whatever field). Here are several of the learnings I walked away with after finishing. (This is the very short version of a list that could stretch for quite a while).
1. Take time to be still - don’t rush into solving the problem right away. (Read a previous post about this here, which received a comment from the author himself - what a nice guy!)
2. “The secret tragedy of innovators is that their desire to improve the world is rarely matched by support from the people they hope to help.” (p. 55) Don’t just assume that everyone will love or adopt your idea - no matter how incredible.
3. Never stop being an innovator. Just because you have succeeded, don’t hold too tightly to the idea. Continue to pursue new ideas…don’t stop!
4. Read and study subjects you have no association with. In reading about astrophysics or painting, I can find a new way of tackling innovation in my field. Innovative ideas are not limited to their specific field - don’t apply a filter too early. Berkun says that true innovators “turn their filters off for long stretches of time, trying to go where other’s haven’t been.” (p. 90)
5. Innovation among a group isn’t a characteristic, it’s a culture. “Teams with healthy idea life cycles are easy to spot: ideas flow between people easily and in large volumes. Conversations are vibrant with questions and suggestions, prototypes and demos happen regularly, and people commit to finding and fighting for good ideas.” (p. 101)
6. Define the problem before you try to solve it. (Einstein: “If I had 20 days to solve a problem, I would take 19 days to define it.”)
7. Both change and tradition are good. New doesn’t always mean better. Old doesn’t always mean perfection.
For more learnings from Berkun, read the book and his blog.
2007, O’Reilly.
