Innovation = 10 Units of Effort for 1 Unit of Progress
/By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.
Reading time: 3 mins
Summary: Pure Innovation = 100% New. The more ‘new’, normally the slower the progress one makes. To innovate you typically make progress slowly… but without spending time innovating you’ll normally make no progress!
Happiness = Reality - Expectations
Having appropriate expectations is key to good outcomes.
Here is my rule of thumb:
0% new = 1 unit of effort fo 1 unit of progress = zero innovation
50% new = 5 units of effort for 1 unit of progress = some innovation
100% new = 10 units of effort for 1 unit of progress = pure innovation
Most of Secondary School has 0% new...
You might be doing maths, or science, or history; but the maths has already been ‘invented’. You are learning what others have come up with. So there is 0% new. With a good teacher, good resources, good personal application and the right mindset you should be able to have 1 unit of effort actualise to 1 unit of progress. Eg at the start of class you didn’t know how to add fractions, but at the end of class you do.
...but hopefully you do some things with 100% new
For example, how do you improve a Year 7 Maths resource? There might well be no one there to show you what to do, you are 100% on your own.
It’s my experience that 100% new things take ~10x or more longer to make a unit of progress in than 0% new things. Unless you set expectations with yourself and / or others about this then it does not feel good! It can feel like you are wasting time, going nowhere, spinning your wheels etc.
They say innovation is a mess.
Innovation can be a beautiful mess, or an ugly mess. But I've always found that innovation is a mess. One key strategy I have for innovation to be a beautiful mess is to understand that often it takes 10 units of effort for 1 unit of progress.
I used to implicitly think that ‘1 unit of effort = 1 unit of progress’ for everything. I feel that school inculcated this. With the benefit of hindsight, this ‘mindset’ was quite counterproductive for innovation.
If you want innovation in your business then allow 10 units of effort to get 1 unit of progress
I did almost no innovation in my Secondary Education or at University. And minimal at my jobs prior to Edrolo.
One characterisation: Pure Innovation = 100% New.
Many businesses want to increase the amount they innovate. If so, I think you need to consider making the time for ‘10 units of effort to equal 1 unit of progress’. Ie 10% the productivity you might expect in ‘normal’ areas.
This can feel like ‘wasting resources’, it can feel very unproductive for the people involved, but I don’t know another way!
If you only take away one thing
To innovate you need to spend time innovating AKA you need to spend time on 100% new areas and likely have ~10 units of effort for ~1 unit of progress.
Failing to spend this ‘unproductive time’ will likely mean failing to innovate. And without innovation your business is likely dead in the long run.
Jingle: If you can’t ‘waste’ time (innovating), then it’s likely your business will get ‘wasted’.
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