Frans Johansson’s “Medici Effect” shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory, and offers examples how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations. Arthur Koestler (1976) has coined the term “bisociation” to make a distinction between the routine skills of thinking “on a single plane”, and the creative act, which always operates on more than one plane. Koestler developed his views on creativity from the study of humor, literature, and biology. He defines creativity as the juxtaposition of two self-consistent, but habitually incompatible frames of reference in the physical, psychological, or social world. A humorous anecdote illustrates this principal:
Q: Where does a General keep his Armies?
A: In his sleevies.
The joke is a play on the definition of the word armies. It is most humorous to grade-school kids who will be caught up in the military frame of reference with the use of the words general and armies. Laughter occurs when the self-consistent frame of reference is switched to another self-consistent frame of reference using the key word, armies. Now the perspective is of arms in sleeves. An unexpected answer is provided indicating a new frame of reference. The tension created by the unexpected switch is released in laughter.
Johansson updates this concept showing that the movement of people, the convergence of science, and the leap of computation have made a wide range of materials available for new, recontextualized uses. This is becoming a norm rather than an exception, much as the Medici family of Renaissance Italy’s patronage helped develop European arts and culture.
One of Johansson’s many examples of outstanding innovators is Edison. He used to say that books could “show the theory of things”, but it was “doing the thing itself that counts.” Edison was an experimentalist – he once developed a solvent for rubber by dropping it into every substance he could think of. This experimentalist attitude embeds the idea the failures – lots of them – are going to happen. They are inherent to the innovation process.
Johansson discusses the fear of failure as one of the main barriers to breakthrough innovation. A truly experimentalist mindset overcomes it by taking for granted that failures will happen. And the Medici Effects suggests that a key movement is to manage according to metrics based on the quantity of ideas. Examples of such metrics include the number of prototypes built, patents filed, papers published, projects completed, and so on.
Without quantity of experiments, there can be no innovation. Therefore, output, whether generating “success” or “failure”, must be rewarded.
Buy "Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation" from Amazon.com.
Q: Where does a General keep his Armies?
A: In his sleevies.
The joke is a play on the definition of the word armies. It is most humorous to grade-school kids who will be caught up in the military frame of reference with the use of the words general and armies. Laughter occurs when the self-consistent frame of reference is switched to another self-consistent frame of reference using the key word, armies. Now the perspective is of arms in sleeves. An unexpected answer is provided indicating a new frame of reference. The tension created by the unexpected switch is released in laughter.
Johansson updates this concept showing that the movement of people, the convergence of science, and the leap of computation have made a wide range of materials available for new, recontextualized uses. This is becoming a norm rather than an exception, much as the Medici family of Renaissance Italy’s patronage helped develop European arts and culture.
One of Johansson’s many examples of outstanding innovators is Edison. He used to say that books could “show the theory of things”, but it was “doing the thing itself that counts.” Edison was an experimentalist – he once developed a solvent for rubber by dropping it into every substance he could think of. This experimentalist attitude embeds the idea the failures – lots of them – are going to happen. They are inherent to the innovation process.
Johansson discusses the fear of failure as one of the main barriers to breakthrough innovation. A truly experimentalist mindset overcomes it by taking for granted that failures will happen. And the Medici Effects suggests that a key movement is to manage according to metrics based on the quantity of ideas. Examples of such metrics include the number of prototypes built, patents filed, papers published, projects completed, and so on.
Without quantity of experiments, there can be no innovation. Therefore, output, whether generating “success” or “failure”, must be rewarded.
Buy "Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation" from Amazon.com.