INNOVATION is the result of Observation!

by Doug Linman, Chairman/Chief Science Officer for MQ Corporation advancing global renewable energy and sustainability solutions

Innovation, innovation, ugh… INNOVATION! The word is tossed about far too often, then mostly used out of context with seemingly simple examples collected to impress the world by representation or buying a disruption of gargantuan proportion!

Asking many people, as I have to prepare this paper, you will find many who can express what innovation generally means or represents which is; the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service. This level is generally reached by most. The part that is not well understood or even expected, is that in business, unless innovation creates value for which customers are willing to pay, then all you hold is an idea to share with others over casual conversation. Innovation then is further business defined as an idea that “must be” replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. You will hear and read a great deal of data, but very little information on what truly expresses the meaning of INNOVATION!

Most think it’s "a magical thing" that happens when you just think about a subject, or an object, a process, maybe a design, or an architecture. Setting aside all the arguments for a moment on what innovation might appear to be to most, the reality is that unless your are a fully engaged "observer" in all or most things you will not "innovate" much. Then the argument arrives, "Yes, but that is why we create Teams to assure we will achieve an innovation!" The response you should hold is, “without fully engaged "observers" from different areas, you will simply have a room with people who already have a disjointed and limited ability.

Over 45 years ago I was lucky enough to arrive from a "Skunkworks" and Fringe Sciences world of “innovation under pressure”! What we learned, very early in our 20-30's as young engineers, scientists, mechanics, architects, chemists etc, was, that in order to arrive a reasonably well conceived anything you had to be able to argue and debate in detail "all" the aspects of the idea. The discussions were incredible and very quick to arrive consensus, because the details allowed everyone to contribute to the fullness of their knowledge and observations base. It was like watching one very large brain analyze, process, correct, assemble, design and arrive solutions. The more this interaction became the norm for us in a room of various subject matter experts across many divergent fields (Biochemistry, physics, material science, architecture, design, mechanical and electrical engineering, assembly, manufacturing, calibration and stress analysis, testing and certification, life science, organic and inorganic chemistry, etc..) the smarter we became from our personal observation bases and our interactions with other observers and their structures and knowledge. We grew up as “master observers” integrating other’s observation detail from their subject matter base, which assembled a team arriving consistently amazing “Innovation” !

How do you know if you are already a good or great observer?

Well, let’s test that now:

Get up, put on your casual clothes or running fashion and leave your house or apartment. Go as far as you like and return home. Once home, immediately sit down, write down and draw as much as you can remember of everything you saw or witnessed. The day, the colors, the people, the movement, the sounds, the environment, the structures, the heights of everything, the big, the small, the silence, the crunching beneath your feet, funny license plate numbers, clothes, faces, eyeglasses, crying, whistling, birds, planes, cars, type of street substrate, and how some interesting things which caught your eye were architected and how the streets were connected. If you do this naturally, or can quickly remember many things which you can easily store and recall, then you are a wonderful, and possibly, a master observer!

Tricked Into Mindful Consideration

When I was growing up, my father played a terrible trick on me as a young 7-8 year old child and into my early teens, that would alter my brain thinking patterns for the rest of my life. He would buy me models of boats, planes, tanks, human body, brains, action heroes, everything…and also with an ever growing number of assembly parts to put together. Sounds normal so far, right? Then he would have me read the assembly instructions and when finished then to immediately hand them back to him! I would never see them again until the model was completed and inspected for accuracy. I was allowed to keep only the box top for any picture reference, but nothing else! Needless to say my first few models were disasters, but then hope sprang eternal and all of a sudden I was up for each new challenge, determined to become a master at these efforts. That was the fun part, which I never conceived would create such a profound effect on my life and thus the direction I would take towards science and technology, innovation, invention and of course, the most demanding element of all..truly mastering observation! 

When you can see and manipulate in your mind the inner workings before you ever build something...that is pure excitement!

When not working within molecular sciences, I have built many significant models and then larger Lego models during my life without instructions because of the youth training from my father. I can deconstruct everything first in my mind, no matter what it is, then I read up later on more things and remember how they work internally when I see them again. My father found a way of expanding ones' abilities by something as simple as focusing your mind to deconstruct a picture and its inner workings and structure, then rebuild it also in your mind, from the inside out. Fascinating! 

I became most aware of the effects in my late 20's, that my brain could illustrate quickly how something had to work, or had to be mixed, or had to be integrated, or structurally connect, to properly function. It also led me to the best high tech jobs and into early leadership as well.

Observation and reference constructing is an attainable gift, which I think keeps on giving! My father and I were seemingly only playing a game, a growing challenging and observation game, that structured my mind in active natural observation, and deconstruction, then reconstruction mode on a ready mind canvas, perpetually! That might be the good part! The bad part however, is that I clearly notice who does not hold a natural ability (yet) in this type of thinking and had to work at curbing my appetite down to patiently listening to what I knew was not valid, far too often.

What Innovation is NOT

I was invited to a THINK TANK to see how one of their interactive sessions unfold. To express my interpretation of that meeting would be too callous. The think tank session was more like tossing text on a screen and hoping a product design would mystically emerge to full clarity. Strangely, I have received more invitations to these organizations but do not go very often because little observation exists, resulting in so very little, if any, innovation blossoming. The education is lifeless and thus poor results remain. There are certainly exceptions to this, but we all truly wish to hear that most of these "innovation" efforts are wildly more fruitful than so terribly failing.

Think Without A Plan or Instructions…

Maybe they should simply first build models without instructions, just to see how they think and interpret the loss of any exact plan or reference. This will get them in the right frame of mind. Our education system does not promote “Innovation Thinking”or “Observation” skills as we have expressed within this document above. This, I believe, is the difference that can make or break any type of company’s innovation pursuit or product. We need to grow and educate so inclined people in true observation skills first, which directly feeds into graduating or birthing wonderful innovation thinkers or simply solid thinking visionaries.

Innovation under pressure without observation skill is not an achievable task

Here is a simple example: If you place 20 chemists in a room and tell them to come up with a new "innovation"and give them 3 months, what do you think will happen? Behaviorally and Academically they are all trained as the same "type" people, so they will think and research within a comfort zone and actually not much or very little will easily arrive. Living in a classed, boxed and numbered world within our daily experiences and holding real intermingling of technologies or sciences would be shallow at best as the same subject matter students. So this is certainly not at the level which would open your mind to the possibilities of great enhancements, or of taking wonderful and exciting great leaps out of the box into advanced thought or imagination, because you would, through integrating great diversity in conversation and informations, now yourself.... see the possibilities! 

OBSERVATION IS THE KEY TO INNOVATION

Observation first, is the absolute key to Innovation! You must be manic about this and desire to know, understand or simply imagine how most things work, interact, are designed, or could integrate. To be a master at this, you must end up naturally living this life in a constant observation mode role of world events, disaster and recovery, how things grow, how things flow, how things act in space, how your heart beats without a battery, how we are electromagnetic resonance objects, how colors are formed, or things move and turn, certainly all and as much as you can absorb. This is the life of a true "observer". 

Now, place a couple of these people in a room and watch the sparks fly in rapid prototyping and "innovation" ideas, or sciences, technologies and products. All education should excite and prepare us in this way to realize our full potential and lead us to our successes!

to all the great young thinkers and observers, perseverance is the final key to your successes.....Doug Linman

About the Author: Doug Linman is the leading science force behind Molecular Quartermasters, along with Boris Petrovic, they lead the company’s incredible scientists and engineers delivering incredible advanced innovations. MQ is a molecular science and leading renewable energy company delivering it's "innovations" built at the "molecular" subatomic level to support humanity, prosperity, and longevity. Contacts us at: www.molecularquartermasters.com