Innovation for Satisfaction

I am sitting in front of my current version of the pencil and paper - my PC - after just finishing the previous blog.

I am wondering what is it that makes people want to innovate. It might have something to do with money, but not much I think. Most of us realise that the chance of a money-making hit is slight. Yet something about the process and to keep on trying, appeals to everyone.

What is it about innovation that ensures that we will always keep on trying, without training, funding or a tangible end in sight? What is it about trying to innovate that gives us such satisfaction that we keep on trying? It cannot be the end objective, so it must be the process or something else.

What?

Dan Pink gave a famous speech once on TED, about Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose; and Intrinsic Motivations. Proved it by linking with The Candle Experiment. I described it in detail in one of my earliest postings.

Intrinsic Motivations driven by the need for Autonomy, Purpose and Mastery, leading to Satisfaction at psychological, spiritual and physical levels. That's my theory for why innovating will forevermore be our gift to ourselves. Whether you are a CEO, garbage collector, househusband, student, sweeper - you will always try to do things better no?

Now let’s get into the neuroscience of Innovation and Design Thinking. Communities, governments and businesses should come to understand this in order to tap into the collective IQs and innovation potentials that are staring at all of us right in our faces.

I am assuming a safe assumption that is that we all generally accept the idea that we should give space for anyone to come up with new ways of doing old things. After all, if someone wants to take ownership of his space and what he is accountable for, and actually comes up with methodology that saves money, time and associated headaches…well, why not?

I am also making another safe assumption that is that almost all our spaces (and bosses) do not allow us this freedom. I will accept that here are reason for procedures and iron-fisted processes that brook no innovation or even suggestion for change. But most spaces assume that brains at low, mid and sometimes even mid-high levels should not be allowed to think too much. Just do the work, shut up and leave the thinking to higher powers.

The neurosciences have long stated with absolute certainty that even the most average of brains performing the most mundane of tasks, will find ways to make the tasks better or perhaps even irrelevant. That is the potential that design thinking always hopes to tap into when exploring participatory enquiries, and gaining empathy with experts and non-experts alike. The methodology works on participants whose mind shave taken apart and processes routine, mundane details that become not so routine anymore when looked at in new ways.

We know that this what leads to innovation, and we also know that the problem is that all the self-righteous, exclusive bosses that still are around, think that innovation and change are still the purview of the bosses, not the masses.

There should be an awareness program that management people should take up that is called the “Neuroscience of innovation”. We all know that intrinsic motivations drive the need for AUTONOMY because we want to be given ownership of our work with full accountability for it. This gives us a sense of PURPOSE and direction in our professional lives, that often even money or higher salaries cannot shake, and which provides businesses with that much needed loyalty from employees. And that is what will lead all these idle but willing brains to achieve MASTERY, which is where the magic of innovation starts to happen.

Neuroscience research has already shown that there are specific areas of the brain that are responsible for these autonomy, purpose and mastery; and when activated, the whole brain lights up, firing synapses that trigger pre-frontal lobe processes such as motivation, determination and will-power; and in the amygdala that triggers empathy and emotional connections to our work and the network of people in our spaces. The science goes into a heck of a lot more detail which I will not bore you with, but suffice to say that we at least have a methodology to implement the catalysts that will trigger the activation of these brain areas – and it is called design thinking.

We must surely accept that the workplace of the now and the future is governed by human responses and human minds, and accept that the more we understand how to work with those collective minds, the sooner will innovation live in our businesses, regardless of whether we conduct splendid training sessions that will promote the granting of lovely certificates on office walls. We must accept that we could underestimate one mind and get away with it, but to underestimate the emergent properties of a collective mind will surely be any bosses and businesses downfall.

That one word…satisfaction.

That one word encompasses all that we should be trying to achieve everywhere. Do what it takes to let people achieve satisfaction. That must mean that many other processes are already at work, which grant Autonomy, Purpose and Mastery; and that automatically leads to people taking ownership and giving loyalty; and thinking, living and breathing innovation.

Design Thinking is only a means to an end, but it is a simple and powerful means that can easily be implemented when used the right way and in the right setting. Gamification is one technique, and design thinking proposes many other ways for the head to connect to the feet.

Innovation does not happen when people are directed to innovate. It happens when people are informed about what the hopes and aspirations are, and they are so taken up with the message that they think about it and home, and go to sleep dreaming about it. This directs their dreams and taps into hidden reservoirs of talents and unconscious knowledge.

Innovation is free baby, should you but know how to connect to people in your space.