“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.  Accordingly, a ‘genius’ is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.” Thomas Edison

Scientific Method for Experimentation
• Outline characterizations/observations
• Develop hypotheses
• Develop predictions
• Experiment
• Analyze data
• Retest

I can hear Mr. Jefferies, my 7th grade biology teacher, describing each of these steps as we all stare down at our new object of dissection and testing.  My major concern…was my mother going to be able to get the formaldehyde that Brett though would be ‘cool’ to splash on me out of my clothes?  Guess this sweatshirt has seen its full life cycle!

This month we are exploring experimentation as a means of innovating in your organization.  Ambassadors have been taking a deeper look into each of the innovation skills described in a recent 6-year study of 3,000 creative private sector executives and an additional 500 individual interviews by Professors Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Hal Gregersen of Insead.  The study looked at how innovators in the private sector think, and concluded that there were 5 skills:  Associating, Questioning, Observing Details, Experimenting, and Networking with Smart People.

I could argue that we are still in the sandbox, just in a different place of the sandbox where there aren’t any Mr. Jefferies determining the “what” of our experiments, rather, our inquisitiveness, discretion, and dedication to a hypothesis testing mindset.  Back to the HBR study, experimenting is defined as the ability to “construct interactive experiences and try to provoke unorthodox responses to see what insights emerge.”  Just like the private CEO’s that were studied, this whole great big world is our laboratory (thankfully not the formaldehyde infused 7th grade classroom), and it’s ours to test assumptions and learn from the results.  Remember, the flip of the switch that brought  light into your office this morning was due to Thomas Edison’s first idea failing - it took over 1000 iterations to get the light bulb right – hence 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration (5).  

1% Inspiration
“What are you waiting for?”  
“I don’t know something incredible I guess.”  Pixar Studios Movie, The Incredibles

IDEO, a design and innovation consultancy firm has created an environment in which something incredible can happen through the sharing of ideas.  Every Monday, IDEO holds a show-n-tell where staff gets to show off and talk about their ideas and products.  It’s a way to solicit feedback and further flesh out some of the ideas that have promise.

Another push of inspiration comes from the “tech box” filled with hundreds of gadgets like “switches, buttons, and various odd materials and objects. “  Designers rummage through the box, stimulating their own inquisitiveness (1).

99% Perspiration
Intuition is no substitute for experimentation and testing assumptions.

BMW engineers long held the assumption that the “stronger the area next to the bottom of a car’s pillars (the structures that connect the roof of an auto to its chassis), the better the vehicle would be able to withstand crashes.”  However, the engineers insisted on testing the assumption through a computer simulation model.

Simulated crashes by a high performance computer early in the game rather than through physical prototypes has greatly reduced the financial and time costs of experimentation for the company.  Time is significant because it has allowed the engineers to analyze the data quicker, brainstorm new ideas, and retest those assumptions unlike it ever has before.

The results of the experiments have completely changed how BMW engineers approach design and structure of their vehicles.  “Strengthening a particular area below one of the pillars substantially decreased the vehicle’s crashworthiness.  After more experiments and careful analysis, the engineers discovered that strengthening the lower part of the center pillar would make the pillar prone to folding higher up, above the strengthened area. Thus, the passenger compartment would be more penetrable at the part of the car closer to the midsection, chest, and head of passengers. The solution was to weaken, not strengthen, the lower area. This counterintuitive knowledge—that purposely weakening a part of a car’s structure could increase the vehicle’s safety—is leading BMW to reevaluate all the reinforced areas of its vehicles (1).”

BMW, our local government organizations, us as individuals – we all have them, those deeply ingrained ideas and assumptions about how things work and the environment around us.  What’s important is that we rely on testing those assumptions and looking at the evidence that is produced.  As founder of Intuit Scott Cook commented, make sure you ask yourself “what was different than what you expected (3).”

Learning Environment
Experiments should be learning events for an organization.  Whether it’s testing a new engagement strategy with your community or reevaluating the budget process, learning is what separates those innovative cultures from normal organizations.  Again, as Scott Cook explains in regards to experimenting and evaluate the results, “you’re doing right because you’ve created evidence, which is better than anyone’s intuition (3).”  

None of this could be done though without maintaining an organizational culture that allows for failure and gets excited about what can be learned from organizational flops!  At Intuit, the “culture opens us to allowing lots of failures while harvesting the learning (3).”  Pixar likes to share its philosophy which is “Mavericks at Work” meaning give people the opportunity to fail together and to recover from mistakes together (2).

Ambassadors, consider the following questions for your organization….
• What is your innovation process; that is, how does the organization get ideas to the table?
• Fail early!  How does the organization brainstorm and flesh out ideas in the initial stages?
• How do you ensure learning from the experiments is happening and create a feedback loop?
• Does your organization allow for failure? If not, what are the underlying issues?  If so, are their additional steps that can be taken to maximize the learning?

Post your ideas/strategies on the Ambassador Group wall and we’ll share the again in next month’s Time to Ideate!  transformgov.org/en/knowledge_network/groups/group/1033.  I’ll leave you with this last thought…innovation is just as much about overcoming the technical challenges as it is about overcoming the management challenges(1).  

References
1. Enlighten Experimentation: The New Imperative for Innovation. Harvard Business Review, Thomke, Stefan. February, 2001.  http://hbr.org/2001/02/enlightened-experimentation/ar/pr
2. Five Ways Pixar Makes Better Decisions. Harvard Business Review Blog. Davenport, Tom.  July 15, 2010.
3. How Do Innovators Think? Harvard Business Review, HBR Editors’ Blog. Fryer, Bronwyn. September 28, 2009. http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org
4. The Innovator’s DNA.  Harvard Business Review, Gregersen, Jeffrey and Clayton Christensen.  December, 2009.  
5. Thomas Alva Edison website. www.thomasedison.com.