A recent conversation with my youngest daughter went along these lines: she wanted me to build her a coffee table for her new house and I pointed out that while I was okay with big projects that involve a crowbar, hammer and a skill saw, I was NOT adept at cabinet making. My skills are not fine enough.
I told her I could make a rough table out of 4x2 but not a presentable table for her lounge.
She completely failed to understand that and has kept asking and I have kept trying to explain my difficulty with the finesse required to successfully become a cabinet maker.
I remembered this conversation while reading a section of Dr Ian Hunter's excellent book Imagine.
He uses the example of Thomas Chippendale to explain his third pillar of innovation - knowledge.
Dr Hunter says: Intellect alone will not maximise your knowledge. Knowledge of others, knowledge of yourself, knowledge of your culture- while not academic pursuits, these are vital for innovation.
It's this self knowledge that Dr Hunter explores.
Chippendale had sideboards full of it and, in my fifth decade, I like to think that I have a fair dollop too (and, b.t.w. I also know my daughter).
Dr Hunter again - The innovator MUST have a cultivated knowledge of themselves: their strengths, their weaknesses, their abilities, and their limitations.
Chippendale knew he was a cabinet-maker and designer, but he was no businessman so he hired a succession of smart business partners.
Back to me - I know my building strengths, and I know my limitations. Given the tools, the resources, a good teacher, and a motivation to make a fine product I'm pretty sure I could make that coffee table.
But until then I'll aim not to be a hindrance to the cabinet making profession and stand over here.
A man's got to know his limitations ('Dirty' Harry Callahan).
Feel in a wild and crazy mood? Have a butchers for 'Process of Innovation chart' in Google Images - you'll get some amazingly convoluted beasts.
I found myself doing just this after reading a section of Dr Ian Hunter's Imagine. He had a great chart that I was looking for without success (hence the scanned version below).
I particularly like this chart for its simplicity (the wiggly line is deliberate - it's not a straightforward process).
For me it was interesting to overlay the chart on my inquiry into new pastoral care systems at school this year.
We are right at the application moment and so the bit that naturally intrigues me is the resistance wall.
Not surprisingly there has been a small degree of resistance already as we moved to set up for the application in term 1 next year. Small needs emphasis as the staff is generally keen to embrace change in general and keen to embrace this change in particular.
Made me wonder where the resistance comes from, and no - it's not Muse (good album though The Resistance is). Dr. Hunter has the answer!
Resistance, according to him, comes from people preferring their existing way of doing things.
People are funny creatures. Although we may profess a general enthusiasm for change, often, when change means altering what we do or how we do it, we resist. It is human nature to prefer the known to the unknown; to seek comfort over discomfort; to side with the proven...rather than the possible, because we like the comfort that certainty gives us, not the risk that uncertainty produces. The irony is, of course, that progress only comes through change. (Imagine page 43)
I must be (shock horror probe) a bit weird. Like Ted Nugent in my previous post, I am not content with the status quo - ever.
It doesn't take me very long to start looking around and thinking up ways to change things up. This has applied to jobs, places to live, and systems and processes in schools. I also admit to being a mass of contradictions - I've been happily married for over 30 years, but let's leave that particular status sleeping quo dog lie.
Anyway - back to that chart - it was a timely reminder that resistance is very likely next term. Forewarned is forearmed.
History is full of 'you can't always get what you want but...you might find you get what you need' stories.
You know the drill - protagonist turns adversity into triumph!
Here's one from Dr Ian Hunter's excellent book 'Imagine':
As a young boy Josiah Wedgwood was stricken with smallpox. Among his injuries his right foot was crippled which meant he couldn't operate his potter's wheel for long periods.
Instead he turned to study - specifically, the antiquities, Roman and Greek pottery. At age 28 he started out in business. Initially, he wasn't very successful but his classically inspired works gradually caught on when he produced a new type of clay - creamware. That was a huge innovation! He became a rock star of the pottery world.
He still is!
He was innovative - taking classical art and reworking it in a new form. He also had novel marketing strategies to get his product out. The guy was a genius!
It could be argued (by me) that getting smallpox moved him into new ways of thinking. He didn't get what he wanted- unlimited time at the potter's wheel- he got what he needed- time to devote to new ways of thinking, time to be innovative.
