In the depths of the Cold War, the Eisenhower Administration created a new agency to pursue fundamental research into breakthrough technologies. Known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) – and later as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – it was responsible for many innovations that fuel technology to this day.
From the late 1960s onward, ARPA / DARPA pioneered: The first computer network (ARPANET); the graphical user interface (GUI) and computer mouse; the packet switching technologies and communications protocols (TCP / IP) that power the Internet; the first electronic mail program, and much more.
In the late 1950s, however, ARPA had a more pressing concern: Soviet missiles. ARPA issued a contract to Research Associates, a Boston think tank, to do basic research for a ballistic missile defense system. Research Associates was specifically tasked with thinking “outside the box” to propose innovative solutions.
A member of the Research Associates team suggested that a colleague join the effort, the author and professor Isaac Asimov. Although Asimov ultimately decided not to join, he produced an essay, On Creativity, before parting ways with the group.
The essay was not distributed beyond a few members of the group and lay forgotten for nearly 50 years, when it was rediscovered and published in the MIT Technology Review.
Asimov was a force of nature. Best known as the author of science fiction classics like the Foundation series, Asimov can’t be boxed neatly into a single category.
He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University and was Professor of Biochemistry at Boston University. He wrote prolifically on a wide range of topics, authoring some 300 books and editing another 200.
How did he manage it? On Creativity is an acutely observed and still-timely work that provides clues. More importantly, the essay examines fundamental principles underlying innovative thinking of all kinds.
This article, examining the “foundation” of innovative thinking, will begin a three part series. In the second part, we’ll contrast innovative thinking with “business thinking,” and in the third part we’ll consider how organizations can build a culture of innovation.
“How do people get new ideas?” So begins Asimov’s 1959 essay. Written in a conversational style, readers may find some of his language archaic, but he presents ideas that are “modern” to this day.
Asimov begins with the example of evolution by natural selection. The idea occurred independently to Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace, both of whom had been influenced by Thomas Malthus’ “Essay on Population.” As travelers and naturalists, they drew a connection with Malthusian population pressure to arrive at natural selection.
Others could have made the same connection, yet no one did. Why not? Asimov suggests that innovative thinkers share three important qualities:
To sum up, an innovative thinker cultivates ideas by looking for new connections and having the courage to follow them. Bold thinking doesn’t come from following the herd. As novelist Haruki Murakami wrote in Norwegian Wood:
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think the thoughts that everyone else is thinking.
Look for new sources of inspiration – especially in different or unrelated fields – to find unexpected connections.
“My feeling is that as far as creativity is concerned, isolation is required.” What follows is the most idiosyncratic, and at times contradictory, part of the essay. But there are lessons here for all innovative thinkers, whether or not they agree with Asimov’s position.
Kekulé’s Dragon. Asimov recalls the story of Kekulé’s Dragon. In 1865, chemist August Kekulé visualized the ring structure of the benzene molecule after dreaming of a dragon swallowing its own tail. His discovery led to the modern petrochemical industry. How was that possible, except in isolation? Kekulé was asleep in bed, after all.
We have entered the realms of “private thinking” and “public thinking,” complementary but distinct modes of thought.
“Public thinking”: The public mode of thought includes freewheeling “blue-sky” sessions, which can generate lots of ideas, even if only a few become finished products. It also includes collaborations, team meetings, and so forth. “Public thinking” tends to favor extroverts and “verbal thinkers.”
“Private thinking”: But what about introverts and “visual thinkers” who may not thrive in the “public” domain? And what about the focused, distraction-free thinking needed to turn raw ideas into finished products?
That’s where “private thinking” comes into play. It’s where Kekulé’s Dragon, “the dreaming Serpent which surrounds the World” (in Pynchon’s phrase), slumbers on. It’s where Asimov “cerebrates” (thinks) in splendid isolation.
Neither mode is better than the other. Both are required for innovation to thrive.
Asimov next describes two key benefits of collaborating with others – while denying that collaboration is useful. Contradictory, indeed! We’ll summarize his examples below:
Those sound like excellent reasons to collaborate, whether or not Asimov approves.
Finally, we come to a point we’ll explore further in the third part of this series: How to build innovative teams. Asimov offers several ideas, some of which are startlingly modern.
Psychological Safety: Asimov begins by calling for what we know as “psychological safety,” although that term wouldn’t gain currency for another 40 years.
Broadly speaking, psychological safety refers to a team’s willingness to express thoughts and opinions without fear of negative consequences. A large Google study found psychological safety to be – by a large margin – the most important quality of high-performing teams.
Asimov puts it this way: “The presence of others can only inhibit the [creative] process, since creation is embarrassing.” For every good idea, he says, there will be many “foolish ones, which you naturally do not care to display.” Despite his objection, he offers a solution: “It seems necessary to me that all people at a session be willing to sound foolish and listen to others sound foolish.” (Italics added.)
The “One Pizza Team”: “The optimum number of [a working] group would probably not be very high,” Asimov opines. “I should guess that no more than five would be wanted.” (Italics added.) And so, Asimov beat Jeff Bezos to the “Two Pizza Team” by four decades – and one pizza. An Asimov Team can subsist on a single large pie.
Asimov worried that bigger teams would lead to “frustration” as participants wait their turn to contribute. According to Amazon, “Two Pizza Teams” simplify communication and streamline decision making. Both Asimov and Amazon agree that “less is more” when it comes to team size.
Enjoying the Process: “Probably more inhibiting than anything is a feeling of responsibility.” Asimov alludes to Albert Einstein’s annus mirabilis, which saw the publication of four revolutionary scientific papers between June and November 1905 – including papers on special relativity and the photoelectric effect (for which Einstein won the Nobel Prize). Einstein was employed as a patent clerk at the time. As Asimov puts it: “The great ideas came as side issues.”
To remedy the weight of responsibility, Asimov prescribes a “feeling of informality” on the team to “encourage a willingness to engage in the folly of creativity.” In other words, if you help people enjoy the adventure of innovating, you’re more likely to reap its rewards.
Asimov’s ideas remain surprisingly current despite the passage of time, and despite his curmudgeonly resistance to collaborating. In the next articles of this series, we’ll examine other facets of innovative thinking to arrive at ways of fostering innovation on an organizational scale.
To be continued in Part 2 and Part 3.
Copyright ©️ 2024 by Stephen Wullschleger. All rights reserved.
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