Can you innovate with a crisis?
Of course yes.
In times of crisis, more important inventions and innovations can be generated.
Nylon was born in 1939 in a wartime period, television was perfected with the Great Depression in 1930, and we still have the iconic Apple case.
The company lowered its revenue 10% during the period 1999-2002, but then changed its policy and increased its investment in Research and Development (R&D) by 50%.
After that came the iPod, the device that revolutionized the way of listening to music in 2008.
In other words, the crisis does not come just because: it is the result of a distraction, which in recent years has been expressed as a show-stopping of management.
But also those who are better off today are those who took advantage of the bad streak to investigate.
And the case of India appears as the most remarkable. The country inhabited by more than one billion people increased its investments in ID by more than 7% in recent years.
This will undoubtedly bring important changes and innovations. And I'm going to comment on something that can be successfully replicated here.
This is the case of the Times of India, one of the most important newspapers in Hindu society with 25 million copies a day.
Times of India, won the Grand Prix in Direct Marketing in 2008 but also broadcast an advertising campaign that managed to summon an entire society of more than 1000 million inhabitants.
It can be seen on the web under the title India Lead and has to do with calling for leaders among the entire population to participate in non-governmental organizations to improve aspects of their city.
Almost like a reality show and with a high spirit of responsibility, the newspaper became the great convener for new figures, who could join the current leaders of India.
With the desire for a participatory democracy, media participation was given to all those who wanted to become leaders, and it was a success not only for the publicity awards but fundamentally throughout the Hindu society.
The same can be perfectly replicated for the bicentennial in Argentina in May 2010, although we are in times of crisis and just a few months after the event.
Are there different dimensions of creativity?
Yes, creativity has three basic dimensions:
-potential creativity is latent creativity with an open and curious mindset, which largely depends on your (endogenous) family relationship.
-The creativity carried out is manifested in the products, as a consequence of the mobilization by society (exogenous).
-the technical creativity that makes the handling of tools and in particular efficient systematic methods, such as TRIZ (endogenous-exogenous).
Without going into considering the origins of each one, it is important to point out that the three are enhanced and if you want they take a third of your innate ability to solve problems and conflicts.
They should be balanced, that is, their potential is worth little if you do not show it or you investigate the attributes that make one product stand out from another.
This is why it is so difficult to teach or practice creativity, and one of the reasons is that you must study and operate in the three dimensions and draw your own conclusions.
Are there myths and shifts in focus on creativity?
Our vision of creativity has been changing thanks to recent research and practical examples from innovative people and companies.
This change resides mainly in going from seeing creativity as a virtue of a few to seeing in it an attitude towards the events that we live.
We can also carry this shift in focus to our company to help us consistently create innovative solutions.
Entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, scientific disseminators like Carl Sagan, psychologists like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and many other contemporaries agree that creativity is an attitude that we have in the face of day-to-day events, the attitude of creating.
Just two of the myths most ingrained in the mentality until recently, were that creativity cannot be systematized and that only some people considered "geniuses" were born with the creative gene.
Now it is known that creativity is an attitude of life, but also that there are powerful tools like TRIZ, which systematize the way of innovating a product, service or organization.
Sorry, but what is TRIZ?
The expression TRIZ comes from the Russian word “ТРИЗ”, which is the acronym for “Inventive Problem Solving Theory”.
The root cause of any invention or innovation in the Process Industry is the solution of a technical problem and that is where TRIZ is strong.
Historically, it is taught that trial and error is a useful method for solving problems and situations, although it is inefficient, expensive, unfocused, subjective and mainly does not have a guide to go towards the optimal solution. Precisely all this is what TRIZ offers.
TRIZ is a systematic guide based on Knowledge Management and aimed at solving problems and unusual situations, or where other methods do not give valid results.
TRIZ was originated by the Russian scientist and engineer Genrich Altshuller in the early 1950s and began with massive studies of patents.
TRIZ reveals the common similarities and patterns between design problems and solutions that have resulted in patents worldwide.
These sixty years of research led to the understanding of the origins of inventive activity and the formulation of the general principles of design.
To date, there are more than 300 TRIZ research institutes, educational centers and teaching centers in the former Soviet Union and about 50 in the US / Asia / Europe.
In Ibero America in Mexico, Chile and Brazil, specific seminars on the subject are held.
If you research in the triz journal at www.triz-journal.com you will find the development and invention of most of the current products and services.
You will see endless applications in life sciences, architecture, education, social sciences, etc.
So TRIZ is a recipe to make up?
It is not that there is a single creative algorithm, but what there is is a guide with inventive principles used in millions of patents of humanity, and that guides you to the place where there are many more possibilities to have solutions that avoid contradictions.
Other methods are interesting but at least according to my experience, very ineffective because they are random, that is, because of their internal conception.
And what international quality companies demand, is to solve the problems that arise in a timely manner.
I always wondered why he put time first and form second.
Well, if you work in production, in development, in marketing or in advertising or in any business (business, a strange word that according to the meaning is the negation of leisure) you know perfectly well that time is money.
What is your experience with TRIZ?
The more you practice TRIZ, the easier it is to use and the steps to follow come out intuitively.
It's like you unconsciously mentalize yourself and you detect where the problem is, express it conveniently.
At least my experience in recent years agrees with Genrich Altshuller that the earlier and more deeply you learn it, the faster you become a specialist problem solver in different domains and specialties.
Will the Internet change the way we act?
We are already mutating our language, traditions, entertainment, leisure and even our values. The relationship with the Web substantially changes everything in us.
In the future, you can surf the Internet hands-free, using your voice and eliminating the need for screens and keyboards.
New technology will change the way people create, build and interact with information and e-commerce websites, using speech instead of text.
In places like India and Asia, where the spoken word outweighs the written word, both in education, government and culture.
So talking to the web quickly outperforms other interfaces, just as the mobile phone is leaving the PC behind. Is a reality.
With the use of “Óbice Sites,” those who do not have access to a personal computer and the Internet, will be able to take advantage of all the benefits and convenience that the Web offers.
With a Web accessible to voice, it's easier for everyone to use. It is now possible to answer a phone call and have the ability to post, scan, and respond to emails and instant messages, without writing.
We can move around the web verbally to find what we are looking for and have the information read to us, as if we were having a conversation with the web.
I'm sorry, but the one who doesn't adapt quickly will be just another computer literate.
You must have a creative and open attitude to learn new technologies and even modify your work experience several times throughout your professional life. This already happens in certain cities in Canada, Japan and the US.
If you had to summarize the capacities that a creativity and innovation program would exert in children, what would you mention?
If I must summarize what were the causes of this program, I would mention the following:
1.- The possibilities of children remain unexploited and recognized.
2.- We do not teach you to think about thinking, even though you are capable of doing it and are interested in doing it.
3.- We do not stimulate them enough to think for themselves.
4.- We do not encourage you to form independent judgments and make decisions with broad criteria.
5.- We do not motivate you to be proud of your own understanding and to have your own point of view.
6.- It is thought that only with artistic or musical subjects from school, we comply with the creative theme, and this is not the case.
7.-This program must start from the idea that children are natural philosophers and creators.
Does this mean that everything will evolve even faster, be it through the Internet or through new creative learning?
Evolution is inseparable from creativity and innovation, that is to say that there will always be restless people, who will think and develop new concepts, competitive advantages, better alternatives or inventions that will enrich life with new products, new teaching methods, new medical treatments, advertising strategies, artistic developments, etc.
It is the basis of capitalism to move the wheel of progress, then it is up to you what you take from all this because it serves you and what you put aside.
What should not be done is to decide that you will not use a cell phone or a computer because this will bring you an exaggerated desire and you will enter the maelstrom of consumerism.
I would advise you to learn everything about everything and only then decide what is not suitable for you.
But giving an opinion through the mouth of others or without having taken your own experience is something risky.
And are the problems related to the invention?
An invention is nothing but the finding of a creative solution to a given problem.
It is important to note that there is no invention without problem, since nothing can be found if you are not looking.
Sometimes, however, you find something different than what you were looking for, and we find a novel solution to a different problem.
But until that moment the invention is still an idea. Only when this idea becomes a reality through its mass implementation is an innovation achieved.
The industry is only interested in innovations, since those creative ideas that are difficult to implement will be discarded and die quickly.
TRIZ initially only dealt with inventions but later investigated innovations, be they radical or disruptive.
TRIZ explored many inventions and inventions, then determined appropriate inventive principles and Standards to deal with problems in all fields of Knowledge.
Does learning creativity change with the Internet?
Yes, with the Internet, knowledge is globalized and everything changes. At the same time the market and the technology itself also change on their side.
So when the market and technology change and have the facility to learn online, what you should do is use it not only to study but to connect with other people and exchange data and problems.
That connectivity means that you can see your problem in other ways and that you have an assistant and teacher inside your house.
E-branding or the creation of a brand in the digital age is what makes the difference in current marketing according to Kotler, and the digital age basically offers connectivity, a precious gift.
My experience is that I had just started a couple of years ago to listen and then study some TRIZ or inventive problem solving theory, and in no time I had been contacted by advertising and product development companies that use it.
For what and what did I know about advertising if my thing is engineering and the chemical industry?
Well, once I asked a manager that question, and he answered me that the politically correct question within a company is one that only serves to do business.
Today I am in contact with fifty people from Russia, Japan to the USA, passing through Brazil and India. People who are authors of books, specialists or teachers who apply TRIZ.
I have exchanged books, courses, solutions to problems, gained experiences and all without leaving my workplace.
In solving problems, TRIZ uses inventive principles that can be applied to any industry. If you enter the triz-journal you will see examples of principles applied to marketing, biology or social sciences.
I was before meeting TRIZ in a conceptual error. Inventive principles are generic and valid for all sciences and are even more useful in non-exact sciences.
If you can express your problem in terms of inherent contradictions then you can apply common inventive resolution principles.
I have tried it to solve problems and inconveniences of the contaminated oil treatment process. I have applied it to modify the content of the ad campaign, and it works, and the most interesting thing is that it works quickly and creatively.
I do not know analog creative tools, or random or whatever, that apply the management of knowledge of patents and developments in a systematic way.
What is an innovator?
For companies, an innovator is in essence a problem solver in a timely manner, after the variable time is the way, that is to arrive before others or your competition to the best solution to your problem in the market.
And you can only do that if you have effective tools to solve company problems in the face of market demands.
There is no time to improvise and even less to go around guessing at ballistic and ineffective solutions.
It should be switched to systematic and effective tools.
Why is it so hard to change?
Because we are and we think as they have conditioned us since we were little. Once our belief system and, therefore, our concept of identity have been formed, we begin to think and perceive reality in a standardized and subjective way, limiting the infinite possibilities that each moment offers. Regardless of what happens to us, if we experience discomfort, it is because our interpretation of the event itself is limited and, therefore, wrong.
Negativity is a symptom of a lack of imagination and creativity.
Does it all come down to a question of perception?
If you change our perception through thought, you completely change our view of reality. And, as a consequence, our attitude, our behavior and our way of relating to others and the environment in which we are all part also changes. Thus, it is impossible for us to change our behavior if we do not first change our way of thinking and our beliefs.
Although many continue to cling to their comfort zone, where their old habits lie, something is slowly brewing in our society. The question one must ask is: have I not changed my paradigm on this issue yet?
Right now, the great challenge that the world demands is for humanity to change its paradigm, that is, to change our way of seeing and interacting with reality, learning to design the future in line with our true values and human needs. We cannot continue to function from our selfishness and self-centeredness. It is time to function from "we", from cooperation and altruism, from which we can create true meaning to our existence.
But does the crisis seem to have accentuated fear, negativity, and the struggle for survival? But what is the use of fearing something that has not happened yet? What benefits does being negative bring me? All the energy that we do not use to build destroys us. So going against something is of no use. What works is the design and creation of useful and effective alternatives aimed at solving conflicts and problems. And there is nothing that generates greater creativity than seeing things as they are instead of how we would like them to be. However, the majority of the population does not own itself, its thoughts, its perspective. And the fatigue derived from their impotence enslaves them to react impulsively and negatively out of sheer inertia, missing opportunities to create well-being and added value.
And what happens within companies?
The same as outside of them. People refuse to learn from the things that happen to them in life, which is why they remain stagnant, which prevents them from growing and improving. And this can be extrapolated to companies. Employee dissatisfaction is just one indicator that things should have changed a long time ago. But until people's minds change, everything will stay the same. It is an eternal and unbreakable law.
What is a good creativity class?
We simply take the time and space to learn to think consciously, which is a matter of commitment and training. The goal is to reprogram our mind with information based on wisdom. Only in this way is it possible to change our belief system and, consequently, begin to interpret reality in a less egocentric and much more objective way, enhancing our emotional well-being and our talent for innovation and creativity.
And how is it achieved?
With effort and discipline. What it is about is to encourage the act of thinking to be voluntary, conscious and sustained, focusing on everything that is positive, creative and constructive. Deep down, no one wants to think otherwise, but they resign themselves due to lack of competition. The smartest people I have met play with their thinking, as they are aware of their incredible creative potential. What you believe is the result of what you believe.
Does it help to be connected by Internet?
Connectivity is essential in the digital age and welcome.
Internet changes our life because it changes the way we study and produce. Now you can study faster and produce more.
It is a reality and reality as gravity is not modified or fought, it is better to accompany it rhythmically.
That means unlearning and relearning something else and that is painful but very challenging.
What are the problems that more technology will bring us in the future?
I think there will be great inequality between the richest and the poorest societies.
Technology and robotization will develop among the richest countries. In several years we will witness this fusion between technology and the body, the development of cloning, a world in which we will choose our son by mail or from a magazine.
A deeply unjust world, because technologies will benefit the rich and contribute to inequity.
And there is the Internet in the objects, that is, an exclusive identification device is installed in the mobile phone to transmit the identity and the place where the user is and know their preferences or allow the reception of specific information of objects in that place.
Many items in the industry already have an electronic tag with a radio communication transmitter, which allows the item to be located online anywhere, anytime.
And in companies, what is the perception of creativity?
I ask in companies: Which of all these is the biggest factor that prevents creativity and innovation from spreading in your organization, company or institute?
-Strategic barriers
-Culture of the company or Corporate Culture
-Structure of the sector
-Learning or training capacity
-Management of supervision
I have consulted this in professional councils of accountants and lawyers, in institutes of scientific researchers, with marketing and advertising specialists, with teachers, with health specialists and career researchers, and they all agree.
It is interesting to note that the lack of training and poor supervision management always occupy the first places in the average of the responses.
