Many great innovators both analyse and act intuitively
LIFE is an exercise in conforming. From young ages we adapt to our surroundings; it has always interested me seeing my own chameleonlike children alter their persona according to their school, sports teams and peer group. As adults we are adept at walking into a room and scanning the situation — have we overdressed? Are there people our age, our gender, our race present? If not, do we choose to stand out and own our differences, or do we retire to a corner hoping not to be noticed?
Understanding unspoken rules and hidden hierarchies are often crucial for fitting in.
One of my first jobs as a student was wiring dishwashers at Fisher and Paykel. I had to start at 7am in Mosgiel — a time of morning for a student which is tantamount to a nightshift. To get myself going, I would consume copious amounts of coffee and at the start of the morningtea break, dash to the bathroom. Someone finally and sympathetically took me aside — I had clearly been the cause of morningtea chuckles. I was told that it was OK to quietly leave to go to the bathroom at any time of day — a generally unspoken rule. I was lucky — the rangeline workers didn’t have such freedom!
When do behaviours associated with being part of a pack and fitting in count against us as people, as innovators and for humanity in general? I read a great article recently by Enrique Dans — Guess what? Everyone was wrong about Tesla https:/ /www.forbes.com/sites/ enriquedans/2018/10/28/guesswhateveryonewaswrongabouttesla/#2977063b3ca4.
Tesla’s outspoken and visionary leader, Elon Musk, has beaten the odds and phenomenal criticism — it would never be able to sell its vehicles under the right conditions or fast enough, he, the founder, was crazy, the company is on its way to ruin and Tesla cars will be a collector’s item, so buy one before the company goes bellyup.
Yet this latest quarter has been profitable, and it looks as if this might be an ongoing position, confounding the analysts. ‘‘Virtually everyone was wrong about Tesla’s finances and its future,’’ the article goes on to say. ‘‘The world would be a better place with a few more crazy people like him in positions of leadership.’’
This brings me to a seminar from Roger Martin about the best combination of analytical thinking (reliability) and intuitive thinking (validity) https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fNgBRcp0u7w.
According to Roger Martin, excessive attention to analytical thinking is stifling innovation. As companies get larger, managers request acres of analysis before moving on with anything — if indeed they move at all. Yet many of the great innovators both analyse and act intuitively — ‘‘knowing without reasoning’’. In his view, science is encroaching too much into business forcing us to be too backwards looking.
To demonstrate where the analysts got it wrong in the case of Elon Musk, they were not able to predict how Tesla would overcome their major logistics and distribution problem. What happened was, customers volunteered to help distribute Tesla vehicles by turning up at delivery centres to help the buyers get to grips with the vehicles.
What the analysts didn’t predict is that people who buy such cars are buying for reasons bigger than transport and so too, the volunteers who are assisting with the process. Buying a Tesla car is as much about committing to an environmental movement as it is about getting from A to B — the old rules don’t apply.
Throughout society, we have layers of analysts: in government, in education, in finance, in business. Those analysts did not predict Donald Trump becoming the President of the United States, nor did they predict Brexit or Jacindamania and all the associated ripples. This is not to say analysis is not important, it clearly is, in the words of Martin Luther King — ‘‘We are not makers of history. We are made by history,’’ but analysts can only take us so far.
Sometimes it’s the annoying nonconforming kid in class who will become the biggest innovator, sometimes we need to back our intuition beyond what the numbers can ever predict — a ‘‘logical leap of the mind,’’ and sometimes it will be the mavericks who truly make a difference.
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