Epistemology of Innovation

Breakthrough innovators are well‐described as mathematically chaotic individuals.

We now turn our attention to the heart of the matter at hand, the “know how” of breakthrough innovation.  By exploring the essential characteristics of breakthrough innovation, as well as the informal, yet powerful language we use to describe it, we begin to recognize that the nature breakthrough innovation is non-linear at its core.  In subsequent essays, we will bring this insight together with others to illustrate a host of ways in which breakthrough innovation plays out in real situations.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

Breakthrough innovators are curious and have a great capacity for absorbing, retaining and recalling factual information.

With the present essay, we further explore and develop the “know what” aspects of our simple model of innovation.  First, I use the knowledge spectrum discussed in the last essay to depict what it looks like when a person learns facts and, then, I share a specific example to further illustrate this concept: a “T-shaped” person morphing into a “π-shaped” person by learning facts.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

While academic researchers are characterized by their depth of insight in one field of study and dilettantes by their shallow breadth across many, industrial innovators often are anecdotally described as “π-shaped” in that they know a great deal about two distinct, primary disciplines and something about a great many others.

With the present essay, we will explore and develop the “know what” aspects of our simple model of innovation, the initial “know what” input to innovation and the new “know what” innovative output.  Only after laying the groundwork in the next few essays can we bring the elements together to see how they work as one, illustrating how breakthrough innovators come to know.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

Imagine the awe and wonder.  What would you experience if – having lived your entire life to this moment confined to a two-dimensional plane – in an instant you were propelled into an entirely new and other world, one in which there were three dimensions?  A world of spheres instead of circles.  Transformation.  Never again would things be the same.

With this essay, we embark on a journey.  A journey that propels us into new dimensions of insight.  A journey that will consume the next several essays as we develop a simple conceptual framework, a model to guide our reflection on innovation.  A framework that will help us gain new insight into the epistemology of breakthrough innovation.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

Two giants; each an exemplar philosopher – each illustrating how dialectic and the reconciliation of dichotomies provide perspective on the knowing characteristic of innovation.

In this essay, I once again take an historical perspective of how breakthrough innovators come to know – this time by suggesting that both Socrates and Hegel help us understand how competing insights are most powerfully resolved into one, qualitatively improved, new insight.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

Two giants; one the exemplar physicist, the other the exemplar poet – together providing perspective on the two dominant ways of knowing characteristic of contemporary innovation.

In this essay, I once again take an historical perspective of how breakthrough innovators come to know – this time by suggesting that Newton and Goethe are prototypical representatives, “patriarchs” of the two “tribes” of contemporary innovation: technology-based innovation (analytical thinking) represented by Newton and industrial-design-based innovation (design thinking) represented by Goethe.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

I’m back – with an essay that explores a big picture, historical perspective of how breakthrough innovators know what to do today in order to have significant future impact.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

Please note that, for personal reasons, I’ve not been able to pursue this essay-writing project on “the epistemology of innovation” for some time.  My original intent was to re-initiate the series this past March, a timeframe I obviously missed.  My current plan is to post up to about a half-dozen between now and the end of the calendar year.  I hope you benefit from receiving these essays.

From the ‘wisdom literature of innovation’, in this essay I present a brief – yet hopefully insightful and humorous – digression reflecting on our engagement with innovation.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

Having written and posted sixteen essays over the past eight months, I plan to break to enjoy the Christmas holiday and re-populate the pipeline of essays.  I expect to resume posting again in roughly the March timeframe.  Thanks and best wishes to all of you!

Paradigms, by their very nature, impose constraints on and help to define innovation.

In this essay, I violate my one topic per essay paradigm; instead, I share three mini-reflections: On decisiveness and flexibility; In defense of memorization;and Architecting for innovation.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

By reflecting on the differences between incremental and breakthrough innovation, we can gain clarity about each.

In this essay, I explore insights from Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 transformational work on the progression of science, “The Structures of Scientific Revolutions,” and apply them to corporate innovation, as well as to innovation in general.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

By grasping what it means to ‘know a fact’, we can gain clarity about what constitutes a good, innovative idea for us to pursue.  We also can gain insight into the limitations – or, stated more positively, the range of applicability – of such knowledge.

In this essay, I explore what is referred to as the Standard, or Traditional, Analysis of Knowledge – the definition of knowing a fact as ‘Justified True Belief’.  While imperfect and incomplete, this definition serves us well and is worth considering.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

The English language is unfortunately limited when we seek to express ourselves regarding the concepts of knowledge and knowing.  There isn’t just one type of knowing; we know variously.  We know facts, we know how to do things, we know people and places, and we know when something cannot or must be done.

In this essay, I walk us through some of the various ways of knowing, providing examples and hopefully inspiring the reader to look for more on their own – especially within innovation.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

In this post, I present a composite of the insight and humor shared by some of the many readers of the most recent essay, “Of feral cats and pet cats.”  As you will find, they explored the metaphor broadly, to its limits, as well as with appropriately clever nuance and depth.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

In a light-hearted turn, I use this essay to discuss how observations of the activity and roaming of cats reveal insights into breakthrough innovators.  The traits of curiosity, motivation and perseverance are nicely illustrated with this analogy.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

In this essay, the last installment of “The Magic Eyes® of innovation” series, I argue that the Magic Eyes® metaphor suggests that breakthrough innovation is an intimate, dance-like interaction with an underlying reality.  This view carries with it significant implications for the nature of both the visionary skill and the implementation success of exemplar innovators.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

Do the best breakthrough innovators impose their will or discover a hidden reality?  In this essay, I argue that the Magic Eyes® metaphor suggests that breakthrough innovation is the discovery of an underlying reality; this view carries with it significant implications for both the behaviors and the identification of exemplar innovators.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

The most successful innovators often are appropriately oblivious to just those tools that enable their creation of breakthrough innovation.  In this essay, I use 3D glasses to illustrate how tools and instruments of all types mediate between the innovator and the world around them.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

A powerful memory can either facilitate or impede breakthrough innovation.  In this essay I use the metaphor of viewing of Magic Eye® images to illustrate the important and complementary natures of memory and making connections in breakthrough innovation.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

With fifteen examples, in this essay I carefully unpack the breadth and depth of the powerful illustration that captures much of what Serial Innovators (SIs) expressed as they spoke of coming to visualize breakthrough innovation, the act of viewing Magic Eye® images.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

In this essay, I present a powerful illustration that captures much of what Serial Innovators (SIs) expressed as they spoke of coming to visualize breakthrough innovation, the act of viewing Magic Eye® images.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

Breaking briefly from my original schedule in order to address a more time-sensitive topic, in this essay I respond to the May 23^rd Wall Street Journal article entitled, “You Call That Innovation?” that raises important and provocative questions about what innovation really is.  Is it the deception of superficial, chameleon-like charlatans or the fruit of invested, immersed, and highly skilled people?  You decide.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

In this second essay, entitled “The prevailing model of innovation,” I provide an initial reflection on the unarticulated assumptions regarding “how we know” that are carried with the prevailing view of innovation.  At the risk of oversimplification, the Fuzzy Front End represents an attitude of epistemological “skepticism” while the Stage-Gate® Process, in contrast, represents an attitude of limited epistemological “certainty”.  So what do we mean by these statements?  And what are the implications of such insight?

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.

The kind of breakthrough innovation required for firms to survive and thrive is elusive.

In response, I am launching a series of brief, occasional essays addressed to senior executives, managers and technologists responsible for innovation in industry.  Its purpose is to challenge readers to reflect broadly and deeply on the practice of innovation – in particular on how innovators come to know what to do today – in order to succeed commercially in the future.  With this approach I hope, first, to help readers gain awareness of their own unarticulated embedded epistemology of innovation, as well as that of others. Second, I will challenge readers to consider new perspectives and views of what it means to innovate. Having engaged in this way, readers will be better able to develop a more explicit, intentional personal framework through which they can understand innovation.

The first essay, entitled “What do you know?” provides an introduction to the series and some initial thoughts.

I encourage you to download this essay without charge directly via the University of Illinois’ digital archive by clicking here.