“Innovation is not about money, good ideas or who you know. It is about discomfort,” according to Sterling Hawkins, global innovation expert and tech entrepreneur. Speaking at a meeting I attended recently Hawkins said, “We can broaden the definition of innovation. My definition is a significant positive change that is meaningful and transformational.”
He reminded the audience that most people’s response to change is not good. “However, the amount you risk is equivalent to the breakthrough you can achieve. It can be uncomfortable to watch, but it can be moving and inspiring,” he added.
COVID-19 has forced all of us to change the way we live and work, so it seems like this might be a good time to interject innovation into business processes and operations.
Business leaders have to be out in front leading innovation. They need to focus on harnessing the capacity of employees to create growth inside the business. But Hawkins said companies must be committed to something besides linear growth. “We all orient ourselves to the past and look at what we can fix, change and adjust. However, if we only look into the past, the best we will end up with is a slightly better version of what we already have.”
He added, “If we do that any big breakthroughs are the result of luck. Luck does play a role in innovation, but it is not a good business strategy.”
He went on to say that the greatest shortcoming of the human race is its inability to understand the exponential function. “Exponential technology transforms our lives so quickly,” he explained. Think things like Uber and Netflix, which basically created a new normal overnight.
Most businesses focus on products and solutions when they should be focusing on the innovation cycle. (I will share information on Hawkins innovation cycle in another blog post.) One thing stands in the way of us successfully managing the innovation cycle and that is our own personal discomfort.
“The thing standing between us and innovation is engaging our own discomfort. Avoiding it does not work anyway,” Hawkins said. He explained that throughout history conditions of discomfort have led to great achievements.
“When we embrace discomfort, disparate ideas come together and create something new,” he said.
“We all have dreams, but realizing those dreams means confronting our own discomfort. We look at obstacles as things to avoid, but innovation is going through those things to get to the other side.”
