Innovation, and what you don't know...

A number of years ago, I listened to a lecture about the three areas of knowledge:

1. Things you know: these are things that you can readily access. How to ride a bike, how to change a tire, etc. Actions or topics or ideas that you have first hand experience with and that you can say 'I know about this..."
2. Things you know you don't know: these are things that you are aware that you do not know anything about. Brain surgery - I know about it, and I also know I have no knowledge of what to do, or how to do it. The key is, I do know about it. I also know I know nothing about it.
3. Things you don't know that you don't know: this is the body of ideas, concepts, actions, etc that you are not even aware of that you have no knowledge of. It's the wide world out there that is COMPLETELY unknown to you in every way..

So often, when I am doing workshops on Innovation, people are striving hard to find that elusive third group: things they don't even know that they don't know. This is in a impossible task, and a waste of time. If you spend hours and hours saying 'I have to find that new idea that doesn't exist that I don't even know how to begin thinking about that I have no frame of reference for....' you set yourself up for failure.

In fact, it is impossible. When we learn something new, we actually make a reference in our heads to something we already know. We categorize new knowledge based on previous experiences. So our brains are wired to make connections between items and to find commonalities.

To me this is the key to innovation; Driving those connections that a re possible deeper and deeper and making more remote, obscure connections to find something new. Instead of connecting on topics, can you connect based on shapes, or sounds, or style. This is how architects create new building designs based on a  bird's wing, or business managers create new processes based on a  board game. You have to be open to making those connections, and finding new pathways in your brain between two (or more) odd items. That connection leads to innovation.

So - don't waste you time trying to find something you don't know anything about. Use what you have, and accept and build on what you already know.

Click here for more information of Andrew's workshops on innovation and the uses of Yes, and in the workplace.

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