Dispatches from the Frontier

Faith and Innovation

Consider the following from On Being Certain by Dr. Robert Burton, a neurologist:

Our catch-22: In order to pursue a new thought, we must feel the thought is worth pursuing before we have any supporting evidence or justification.  Otherwise, we would consider ideas we already know to be correct.

My colleagues and I have aspired to apply the methods of scientific skepticism to the process of identifying, validating, and developing promising consumer products.  We have consciously pursued the new in the hope and expectation that a sufficient number will evolve into innovations--products that are widely adopted by consumers.  In other words, we try to keep our eyes and minds open for opportunities then rigorously test the value propositions of each in order to weed the promising from the pretenders.

But, as Dr. Burton has underscored, there is an unavoidable paradox at work.  Notwithstanding our purportedly scientific approach, by seeking the new, we act irrationally.  After all, new and different products are inherently uncertain.  There is, to start with, no evidence to weigh.  To begin a project requires faith.

On the road to innovation, leaps of faith are required by many players--including investors, employees, manufacturing partners, and distributors.  Critically, consumers of a new product buy, initially, on faith.

Why would otherwise rational people act on faith?  Dr. Burton's hypothesis and supporting research suggests that the feeling of knowing provides a feedback mechanism as physically and psychologically fundamental as the feeling of fear.  As with fear, there may be an evolutionary advantage that stems from the feeling of knowing.  In an unchanging world, new things are expensive.  In a changing world, however, the willingness to experiment is adaptive.  The feeling of knowing could serve to inhibit superfluous change in a static environment as well as encourage experimentation in a dynamic world.

In other words, inventors and entrepreneurs may well act--initially--from deep-rooted (possibly addictive) feelings.  So do the investors and customers who enable them.  While the feeling of knowing can be a source of intransigence, it can also be learning's best friend.   If necessity is the mother of invention, faith may be the father of innovation.  Thank goodness.

Theory or Practice?

A thought which does not result in action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.  Georges Bernanos

A number of my acquaintances and friends--even  some who have known me for years--tend to think of me primarily as a business theoretician.  That may not be particularly surprising to readers of this blog.  Admittedly, I'm attracted to rather abstract, even esoteric, aspects of business, entrepreneurship, and innovation.  Nevertheless, I'm troubled by the implication of a two-valued world composed of business thinkers or actors.

It's true that I aspire to become a better theorist.  To some, that suggests that I may be unfamiliar with, or even averse to, the practice of business.  The evidence suggests otherwise.  After all, I've co-founded several companies over the years as diverse as a private equity firm and, most recently, a maker and marketer of consumer recycling and trash containers.  I've assembled, with my own hands, thousands of products (quite literally) in my garage.  I've celebrated success, though I've frequently tasted the bitter disappointment of failure.

My experience is unexceptional.  Survival in business requires that we learn to think and do.  Theory--explicit or not--drives our actions.  The consequences of our actions (should) modify our theories.  In order to adapt to a changing world, we must change our behaviors.  To change our behaviors, our mental models must evolve to reflect new realities.  Theory, unconstrained by the reality experienced through practice, is hollow at best and dangerous at worst.  Action, unguided by informed theory, is foolish.

The price of learning how to become better thinkers and actors can be steep.  A strong link to the consequences of our actions tends to expose the inadequacies of our beloved theories, and changes to our theories pressure us to change our comfortably habitual behaviors.  Nevertheless, adaptation and innovation demand that we deal with such discomforts.  Adaptation and innovation is optional, but so is survival.