“ Creativity involves
breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different
way. “ - Edward de Bono
As rightly said by Bono it’s
about breaking out of established patterns, although what Bono is referring
here is the established norms, rules, beliefs which we are very reluctant to
give up but if we look at it closely from a data point of view it’s a catch 22
situation. Today most of the businesses rely on the power of data to take
effective strategic decisions and act accordingly. So we need to know the patterns in first
place to break out of it or use these patterns to create something new but then
patterns will usually lead to a convergent approach to innovation and
creativity. So is data killing creativity and Innovation?
Well so the main question here is
Weather Data is actually hindering the process of innovation and creativity by
limiting our thought process and constraining us to go only in a certain
direction on basis of previous findings through it. I think data is definitely
an enabler in taking effective decisions, and its utility in innovation and
creativity is based on its order into the scheme of things. So we cannot do
away with data it is indeed a very important aspect but rather than it driving
innovation it should act as a verifier of our decisions.
The inherent problem with using
data to guide innovation and creativity is that the user doesn’t know what
he wants and relies on the numbers to tell him what he wants. The basic idea of
innovation and creativity is to think differently and come up with something
new and present it to user before they realize what they want.
Let us try and understand this with simple figures below :
Figure 1 : Data before Ideation |
As we see in figure 1 when data comes in the beginning we restrict our ideas because we constrain our thought process on basis of the parameters that already exist. This is a good approach if we are just content with solving problems on a reactive basis and fixing them as and when needed , not a good strategy from a long term perspective.
Figure 2 : Data after Ideation |
Now consider figure 2 here we know the problem and we don’t constrain ourselves with any predefined parameters. Most of the times this constrains we define ourselves keeps us away from a better solution. Once we remove constraints our thinking becomes divergent and we come up with ideas that does not bound us to current situations, it focusses on problems and sometimes the problem is the current environment itself. Now here the data becomes enabler and verifier to the thoughts to be put in action. Now is the time we bring in the data aspect to channelize the innovation in right direction by giving it the right context. This is a proactive approach to solutioning. We come up with something before the end user realizes its need for him. One example of this methodology is Steve Jobs, if you look at Apple, Steve never restricted himself to current setups and constraints he challenged the existing norms if needed and came up with a solution to the problem, many a times it disrupted the current way we look at the product or service altogether.
I would like
to leave you with this thought and famous lines from Robert Frost’s poem: “Two
roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has
made all the difference “
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