There is no question that the productive capacity of the world has dramatically increased over the last 100 years and is accelerating.  Productivity tools abound, including labor saving farm implements, air transportation, manufacturing, computing and many more.  Bill Gates of Microsoft dreamed of a personal computer on every desk, others, a car in every garage and on it goes.  Yes, the world population continues to grow and the number of new widgets needed grows with it but the productive capacity far exceeds the needs.  A little over 100 years ago most societies were predominately agriculture and most families had to produce some of their food to survive.  Today, less than 3 percent of the population feeds the rest of the world because production capacity has improved so much in farming.  Luckily, there have been numerous new world changing inventions and products since then that have created additional demand for the labor that is no longer needed for farming.  And that is exactly the point, every nation needs to have their labor capacity utilized and without new inventions and innovations fewer and fewer of the population are needed for producing.  When a population is not needed to contribute to labor needs they will become more of a burden to the productive population, this condition does not bode well for society as a whole or ongoing peace and prosperity. 

Unfortunately, labor eliminating efficiency improvements offer a quicker return on investment than labor demanding inventions and innovations.  Impatient investors would rather opt for the short term ROI at the expense of the long term.  This investor mentality perpetuates the declining demand for labor and more and more of the workforce in advanced societies are becoming underutilized and incapable of consuming.  With fewer consumers the need for production falls even further.  Even though business leaders are increasingly conscious of the need for creativity and innovation, very few see it as the path to the paycheck, production is still the priority and what most business managers are incentivized to do.  The big question is how to turn this consciousness into action?  Production has definitely become systematized and systems produce consistencies so, the question becomes, how do we create invention and innovation systems so that they can be produced consistently?  Fortunately, there are companies that are systematizing innovation and we all can learn from them.  Try Proctor and Gamble former CEO A.G. Lafley’s “Game Changer” as a good starter.  Schedule innovation the way you schedule production is another good starter.

Innovators are able to see life through a different set of lenses and bring focus to what is unclear to others.  That is exactly what some unknown inventor did back in Italy sometime around the late 13th century.  Spectacles or eyeglasses as they are called have changed the world for millions if not billions of people since that time and all they do is bring focus to what is unclear.  Sometimes more than one lens is needed for different situations, such as bifocals to help near and far sightedness.  For innovation to take place we really need help getting more perspective. If we can help our eyes with something as simple as a pair of glasses couldn’t we help our brain gain more perspective as well?  Innovators are made not born, just like not everyone is born with 20/20 vision but can get it with corrective lenses.  Binoculars for the brain are really just an exercise in curiosity.  Every time we learn something new and different we are gaining perspective and building more detail into our blurry pictures that wasn’t visible before.  The further away from what is familiar we get, the more diverse and disruptive our ideas and thinking can be.  So traveling to Vietnam or Uganda will add far more to our ability to think different than reading about it in a book (or traveling from Omaha to North Platte Nebraska), it's so different that our minds catalog detail better and pay better attention.  Another advantage comes from learning through all of our senses rather than just through the visual sense.  New learning, new discovery and making connections are what thinking different is really about and that is something we all can do.  So, next time you sit down to solve a problem or create something new, stop what you are doing and go to a trade show in an industry you know nothing about.  Invest your time and money in building a "perspective" database to draw from!

Finding new ways to innovate and bring value to the customer through new processes and or new products is a challenge for everyone.  Every innovator needs to be scanning the horizon for opportunity, matching new learning such as new technology, new design insights, new applications and process improvements with economic needs.  Creating really good innovation habits is very useful in helping us be focused and more efficient in how we go about our research and development but once you identify some great opportunities for innovation then it needs to turn into habit innovation (ie. innovations that tie into old habits or create new).  Successful innovation is much more likely when you can attach your idea, your product or your process to existing habit triggers that people already have and build on those rather than start from scratch.  The reason that those innovations will always have a better chance of success is because it's truly difficult for most people to make major changes to their daily habits, whether it's in the workplace or at home.   Many of our lifelong habits are established when we are pretty young and they may or may not serve us well. 

The useful part of habit innovation is that we can learn to use the triggers people already have to inspire use of a new product or process that will help build even better habits for more rapid improvement of what already are doing.  Habits can be very useful for many reasons (unless of course they are bad habits) they enable us to do something very effectively yet without conscious thought which frees up our conscious thought for the more challenging problem solving, creativity or just plain relaxation.  Habits enable us to keep the car between the lines almost unconsciously but the new habit assist feature, in some higher end car models, warns  us if we are getting too close to the line with a vibrating seat.  We brush our teeth and comb our hair every morning without thinking and the goal of many innovators is to be able to launch a new product that gets attached to that deeply ingrained habit.  If those innovators can do that it is very likely the product will become a success.  

The habit factor in innovation means enabling people to perpetuate old habits or create better habits through the innovations that you or your company produce.  However, being able to create a brand new habit with a product or process is truly the winning edge's for innovators because a habit can quickly become a subconscious part of our daily life and if it is subconscious we usually won't evaluate or question its use.  Soon we can't imagine life without it.

So, as innovation becomes more and more important in business and our daily lives it is imperative that we consider the habit link to increase our chances of success!

It’s pretty obvious that every industry is a little bit and sometimes a lot different.  What works in one may not work in another and so on.  But sometimes there really are universal truths about certain aspects of business that can be applied across a wide spectrum of industries and produce very similar outcomes.  Having a template or a theory that can organize and focus learning rather than step by step answers can be very useful to help simplify the design and implementation process and eliminate the time and expense of reinventing the wheel for each business and industry.   Knowing the the right questions to ask can be far more useful than trying to implement a set of answers that may not work in your business or industry or be obsolete.  Former General Electric CEO says that learning faster is the key to staying ahead of the competition.  So, if you can accelerate and focus your learning you are going to be able to get better answers for your business and take action quicker.  Just remember that the answers for any business are temporary. Markets change, technology changes workers change and customers change so don’t fall in love with your answers.  There is one element that just about every business and industry has in common and that is people.  People are still the most valuable asset in any business but there are no easy answers about working with people.  However, there are some universal truths that need to be learned about the people that work in any organization in order for there to be an effective allocation of those resources and maximum development and output.   Business leaders need to be constantly learning about their workers needs and desired rewards for their work and where they will be the best fit within the organization in order to gain the most engagement and professional development.  Too often we look to incentivize workers to do what we want rather than finding out where their intrinsic motivation lies and finding the work that aligns with that.  That is when the organization will truly benefit the most from their workers and when the workers will likewise be the most fulfilled and developed.  

So, the “plug and play” is to plug into a learning template about your unique workforce and pretty soon you will have far more resources and talents to play with than you would ever have if you just dictate what you want from each.