Innovating in the Moment

No matter where you and your team are in understanding and identifying problems, needs, opportunities or solutions, you are creating new ideas and innovations.

Innovating in the moment can and does happen, as an individual and as a team. Think about and take advantage of these four common moments that individuals and teams often face.

The HUH? moment: the moment when you think what just happened, what did you say, why is that, where did that come from, what the heck,…? A potential boundary to cross, problem to solve, or hurdle to overcome has just been thrown in front of you. From this initial boundary, problem or hurdle comes your initial focus, attention to detail, and reaction. You think of new questions to ask, and perhaps reformulate what you just heard. You might make analogies to other problems to help put this into context. Are you innovating?  Maybe, and maybe not. But either way the creative process is starting. Consider asking why this boundary, why this problem, why this hurdle,…, and why is it important now?  The reasoning behind those answers often will lead to new innovations.

The HA! moment: the moment when you think, that can’t be done, there is no way to solve that, I have no idea what the cause of this problem is, that makes no sense,…! That boundary, problem or hurdle that just got thrown your way,…, yeah, it’s a monster. Yikes! The HA! moment may be part of the HUH? moment, or may happen only after some time has passed and more thinking has been done. Either way, it often brings more attention to detail, and yes, perhaps even a sense of surrender or defeat. So where’s the innovation here?  There might not be one, especially if the HA! moment is an immediate gut reaction.  But consider the specific reasons that were just identified as to why this problem needs to be a center of focus and the specific justifications for the view that there is no way to solve the problem. If they took some rational thought, some insight, or deep reasoned thinking, then an innovation and perhaps a solution is close. Don’t stop. Keep thinking and keep asking questions. Break down the problem further, find its root causes, and keep framing it up with more and more granularity.  What are the next areas to explore? This is innovative thinking, you’re getting there, and the AH… moment is within reach.

The AH… moment: the moment when you think, wait a minute, I see a pattern here, I know how to simplify this, I know what analogy or other situation to draw from, I know what to try next, I know what’s causing this, I know where the problem is,….  Like the HA! moment, the Ah… moment often brings focus to a problem or challenge, albeit in a more positive and insightful way as a next step or even a solution now seems within reach. Sometimes a solution is easy to see once you know the cause of a problem, so don’t let the solution to the problem seem trivial in hindsight.  Identifying the true or root cause of a problem to be solved is innovative, so think about how this can fit into your intellectual property strategy to build your competitive advantages.

The AHA! moment: the moment when you think, I see a potential solution, I know what to do here, I know how to avoid this problem, I see another way to deal with this,…! You’ve just built on the AH… moment. You’ve just innovated – a new solution, opportunity, gap filler, product, process, service, etc. It may be rough, incremental, not the best or final solution, or even commercially viable, but identify and recognize this innovation now and see how it fits in your intellectual property strategy.  You’ve invested time and energy to get to this point, so make sure you get the most from this investment.

There is not always a specific order to these moments, they can be combined, other moments may occur (such as the Hmm... and Uh... moments), and sometimes one or more of them just don’t happen. The key here is that innovative thinking and new ideas can happen at lots of different times.  Don’t lose sight of this, don’t fail to identify all of your innovations, don’t forget that identifying the true problem often is the innovation, and don’t miss an opportunity to strengthen your intellectual property strategy and competitive advantages.