Creativity and innovation is not only my profession but also my passion. But my quest to create more effective innovation methods has made me realise a related dilemma: What if someone used my expertise to work for "the dark side" of innovation?
What is the dark side of innovation? Most things can be used for good or bad purposes. Think of a knife. Or think of a medical drug: we use it to cure a disease, but some use it to kill themselves by taking an overdose.
Likewise, every effective innovation method is a "neutral agent". People can use it to create good and evil results. What do you get when you enter a good, worthy innovation case into such a "thinking machine"? You get meaningful ideas that improve people's lives and make the world a better place.
But what if people with ill intentions input a dark, evil innovation case into a potent innovation method? They could produce "dark ideas" that worsen people's lives and world conditions; that's the dark side of innovation.
So how can we avoid the danger of effective innovation methods being abused for an evil agenda?
An antidote against the dark side This month I began writing my second book, which will be titled X-IDEA: The Structured Magic of Playful Innovation. X-IDEA is an innovation method that I created for my company Thinkergy. It can reliably guide innovation teams and individuals towards meaningful ideas and results.
While writing the book, I realised that there is one powerful ingredient that the dark side is missing and cannot acquire. Let me explain.
While working on an innovation case, X-IDEA invites you to adopt one role or mindset in each of its five stages. Each role requires a unique style of thinking for that stage. The five mindsets differ greatly from each other. However, they have one common ingredient: courage. Without courage, regardless of how hard you work, your results will be suboptimal.
In the Xploration stage, play the role of an Xplorer. Have the courage to travel into the unknown and look for evidence that may challenge your cherished views. Accept that your real challenge may be very different from what you first thought.
In the Ideation stage, become a Child who has the courage to suggest really bold and wild ideas that are often the starting point of truly meaningful concepts.
In the Development stage, be an Alchemist. Have the courage to experiment, and trust your gut or intuition about how to best connect the dots to end up with meaningful concepts.
In the Evaluation stage, become a Judge. Have the courage to speak up for an idea you believe in, even if it goes against the preferences of dominant team members or threatens the group's harmony.
Finally, in the Action stage, become a Champion who has the courage to endure pain and overcome all the obstacles and hardships associated with turning an idea into a tangible output.
If you want to become a creative leader, courage is your starting point, too. You must learn to overcome your doubts, worries and fears to realise your creative potential.
What makes courage flourish? Environments that cultivate courage are libertarian cultures built on respect, trust, freedom of expression, freedom to be yourself, diversity, and passion for working together for a worthy cause. You can find all or most of these factors at companies that are innovation leaders.
In contrast, courage typically doesn't show up in authoritarian environments characterised by power distance, politics, distrust, control, uniformity and sameness, censorship and motivation using a carrot-and-stick approach.
These factors also matter for countries. What do countries high up in the innovation rankings (such as the Scandinavian countries, the US, Britain and Germany) have in common? They encourage their citizens to think and act courageously and express their opinions freely.
Now, imagine you were part of an innovation team working on an evil project in an authoritarian organisation or a dictatorial environment ruled by tight control, intimidation and fear. Ask yourself: Would you have the courage to mention an inconvenient truth that no one wants to hear? Would you have the courage to suggest really bold ideas -- or would you rather play it safe?
Would you have the courage to experiment and use your gut, or would you prefer to follow a "logical, scientific" approach to justify your ideas? Would you be willing to speak up for an idea you believe in, or would you side with authority or the majority? Would you risk your career, your personal freedom, or even your life to create the best possible solution?
Conclusion: Let's admit it, innovation methods can be abused in ways that make the world a worse place. But even if a good innovation method ends up in bad hands, there is hope. The henchmen working for "the dark side" are unlikely to come up with ideas that can do too much damage. Why? Courage doesn't blossom in dark environments ruled by control, intimidation and fear.
Fortunately, to deliver truly outstanding ideas with an effective innovation method, we still need brave people with the courage to think and act freely and the hearts to work on something they love and believe in.
Dr Detlef Reis is the founding director and chief ideator of Thinkergy Ltd (Thinkergy.com), an ideation and innovation company in Asia, a lecturer in business creativity and innovation leadership at Mahidol University's College of Management (www.cmmu.mahidol.ac.th) and an adjunct associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. He can be reached at dr.d@thinkergy.com