I was a part of the Global Innovation Forum this week and it inspired me to go back to the "... to tread a new path" article - Here it is:
They say that “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” It’s something that many of us believe! I feel that this is a saying for those fatalist people who believe that they are led by their destinies. Few are those gems who stride the path that no one has, seek the light in darkness that no one has ever dared to. I feel... it is not about the destination but more about the journey and the way you live it. Sometimes, it is as simple as - decide to walk and the paths start following. Imagine… one lost in an expanse of grassland of thousands of acres where no one has ever been. There is nothing but the vast spread grassland and somewhere at the horizon, the grassland meets the sky. One decides to walk to seek a human settlement. After walking for a substantial amount of time, if one turns back and sees, for once will he realize that he has marked a way of his own that people might follow. The challenge to seek new roads will be more fun than reaching the destination. One may be known only by what one has achieved and people will look just at the outcomes. But, only one as a person will know the best parts of his journey. As a designer, I have seen that people and clients get awed by the final and finished products… but at times, I feel that the final product is not as beautiful as the inchoate idea. When innovating, the part of the ideation process where a innovator can really reward himself is the creation of an incredible idea… the creation of a path, creation of the set of solutions to an issue, to a problem that no one has thought of. The evolving of such an idea sets adrenaline running in an innovator’s bloodstream and gives him the spirit to create more… But when such people are constrained and made to abide by some parameters, it is then that the level of the invention starts degrading.
It is very hard to find such a person who doesn’t succumb to any such impediment and prospers. As a designer, I have listened to many people talk about hows, whats, whens and wheres of innovation. Most of them talk about innovation as a subject and a add-on to which, I believe, no listeners pay any heed. It is always inspiring to hear from people who not only "create" as a part of their profession, but imbibe it in themselves and make new innovation, a habit.
As innovators, we have to face practical constraints and come out of them. A classic and a convenient approach to address an issue would be to give out an optimum solution that fits well into the requirements and follows the constraints. But, how will it be to gaze at the solution which would be a mere factitious beauty that we have created? Thinking from a different point of view, and the changing perception of innovation from a mere add-on to a strategic step, where a innovator becomes a path director, a manager, a strategist, a economist and other endless positions, could we say that we could just not give out solutions to people but, guide them what to do and then surprise ourselves with the varied outcomes? Could this kind of a vision be translated into reality? Can we just raise people’s aspirations and leave them on their own to make them realize what they really want? Can we as innovators believe in ourselves so much that we boost people’s understanding about what they really want and be sure that people accomplish their solutions? Can we just go one step ahead of optimists and be leaders who direct the masses? Can we be content just to point the way and not actually walk the path but still be able look back only to find that we have actually come a long way over the lonely grassland?
