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by Garry Miller, an Expert in Design Delivery and Project Management and Heading up the Centre for Optimism's Advocacy and Research on Essential Optimism in Innovation
Let us firstly level the playing field. Innovation is for everyone, not for the few and privileged, but everyone, and especially for those that consider they have little and no hope.
Victoria's Lead Scientist Amanda Caples also made this democratic point in her interview with the Australian Leadership Project saying that "innovation is for everyone not just for scientists and engineers."
Now here is the thing, innovation is not a person or group of people nor a flashy lab, for all eyes to see, adorning the floor of a top consulting firm. Innovation is, at a grassroots level, a way of approaching something that challenges the old and is curious about the new.
As we have come to realise storytelling is a powerful practice, especially when it's topical and notionally of value.
So here is a story of innovation. Whilst leading a design practice for a global consulting firm I was encouraged to establish a lab for design and innovation. This idea was further enforced by prospective clients saying they would give us work if we only had a suitable studio and people to fill it. The statement, ‘Where is your studio and where are your people', still resonates today.
At this point in the role, I recognised that many saw me as an exotic talent that brought something different yet was unsure what that ‘thing’ was. Fortunately, I visited the firm’s London office, which was new and swanky, whereas the Melbourne office was old and tired. Clearly the efforts of an architectural practice given a big budget. I called my London counterpart, who had commissioned the London office, and asked for advice.
Sharing that I had been tasked with the job of creating a lab, I was asked what its purpose was? Having been conditioned by business leaders and prospective clients to consider it as a ‘thing’ its purpose had been lost in translation. There was a stark realisation, on the call, that innovation was best served with little, rather than more, and that designer furniture and a street artist mural, on the wall, would not promote the intrinsic nature of innovation nor make the business more able to demonstrate its value.
I was left with a grounded sense and a belief that no plying of a visiting global leader, with pizza for money, would do any of us any good. Fast forward the lab got built and the mural was installed, and the space served a purpose. Was its intrinsic value realised? Well at the very least the project represented a beginning and a stark reminder, for those that could see, that innovation was more than a ‘thing’.
So back to the beginning, innovation is for everyone, little is needed nor necessary to be innovative. What is needed is a curious mind and an intent to do good. Today is the best day to start or to take the next step. And remember innovation is a group activity too so don’t be alone, find others that believe in the same importance and get going with bags filled with optimism and hope.
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