Where Good Ideas Come From

After my last blog on Killing Good Ideas, a book review in the New York Times this past weekend caught my attention. Probably it was the title of Steven Johnson’s book that did it: “Where Good Ideas Come From – The Natural History of Innovation.”

There are literally thousands of books on Amazon that have the word “innovation” in their title. And most of them focus on the specific people or small groups of people who are responsible for various breakthroughs. But Johnson joins a small but growing perspective on innovation that speaks to the environments in which successful innovation occurs.

The premise here is that good ideas are a result of connections and existing knowledge embedded in a particular context. His book focuses on what he calls “the space of innovation” – saying that some environments squelch new ideas while some seem to breed them effortlessly. The book goes on to lay out a series – seven patterns – that recur again and again in unusually fertile environments. (I wonder what the magic is about the number seven in business books – but I digress).

These seven patterns include the power of the slow hunch, and the role of serendipity, error and inventive borrowing. He takes the emphasis off the individual and puts it more in line with collaboration – saying that innovation thrives when ideas can serendipitously connect and recombine with other ideas.

This was fascinating to me, since I had just witnessed this happening in my own company last week. The design group had been making lots of noise about creating their own content – not just executing our clients’ content. So they decided to meet over lunch with anyone in the company who was interested in being involved to talk about it. I was surprised that they were even thinking about creating more work for themselves when they had all been so “slammed” with work for clients – and I was even more surprised to see how many people outside the design group showed up.

The process was truly magical to watch – as ideas were thrown out and evolved and morphed by a large group of creative thinkers. There was no individual guarding an idea or territory – there was no hierarchy between creative directors and junior designers and producers – there was no one group leading the discussion. It was truly a full company creative effort — and the content idea that resulted was an extraordinary one that would involve everyone working together – and mostly after hours – since that would be the only time available in the near future. The smiles on their faces as they left the room said it all. They had a plan of action that they figured out together – not one that was led by a producer or creative director.

It made me think that the best ideas really do result from collaboration – and the bigger and more diverse the group the better. It made me think about how different my company functions now – than it did in the past. Even several years ago, the company and the people in it — were very “siloed.” And this was true for the entire advertising and production industry. Directors directed, editors edited, animators animated, production crews had specific union directed roles. At ad agencies, creative teams were made up of three people – a creative director, a writer and an art director. Web departments didn’t interface.

Now budgets necessitate that Back Alley production crew members often perform more than one task on set. And T2 has editors who write and direct, and designers who edit and compose music – and Smoke Editors that are also designers — and everyone is adept at working on multiple digital platforms. Today, creative departments at agencies have been downsized – and everyone understand the need for fully integrating an advertising campaign across every traditional and non-traditional platform. The economic recession may have been good for one thing – breaking down barriers in the creative process – and forcing us to be more collaborative.

Maybe its time we get rid of titles like Creative Director and junior designer, and editor – and encourage bigger, multi-talented teams to work on creative concepts. Maybe that’s the way to creating a true innovation driven environment. And since the arts, humanities, and social sciences take on more importance in turbulent times, true innovation in these areas will become as important as they currently are in natural sciences and high tech areas. That would be nice for our world in ways much larger than business innovation.