Are You Making the Right Connections?
Excerpt Sentence:
Our ability to see patterns and make connections is one of our mightiest creative assets.
Which explains why innovative products sometimes come from the strangest places.
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What do Velcro, barbed wire, and chainsaws have in common? They were all patterned
after structures found in nature.
Velcro was invented in 1941 by Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral. After returning
home from a hunting trip, he noticed a large amount of cockleburs stuck to his clothes
and his dog’s fur. Out of curiosity, he stuck a few under a microscope and saw that each
bur consisted of hundreds of little hooks that caught on anything with a loop, such as
clothing or animal fur. He surmised that if he could duplicate the hooks and loops with
other materials, he could bind them together in a similar fashion.
When ranchers first began raising cattle on the wide-open plains, they used the Osage
orange as fencing material. But the thorny bush took a lot of time and effort to
transplant and grow. Eventually, someone hit on the idea of fashioning wire fences
patterned after the Osage’s sharp thorns. This innovation made it affordable to fence
vast areas of land, and led to the practice of animal husbandry on a much larger scale.
Nature also provided the inspiration for the modern chainsaw. In 1946, a man chopping
wood in Oregon noticed several timber beetle larvae chewing through the logs around
him. A short while later, he developed a chain with interlocking links that mimicked the
chewing action of their teeth. This led to the development of the first chainsaw that
could cut with, or against, the grain of the wood.
These three innovative products have something else in common. They were developed
using one of the most important parts of human intelligence -- our ability to form
patterns.
The human brain has an amazing capacity to take in large amounts of data, sift and
analyze it, and then form patterns. In our caveman days, this kind of pattern recognition
coupled with instant and consistent response was a good thing. It allowed us to quickly
identify predators, remember the location of food and water sources, and engage in
other activities that supported our survival.
Humans also excel at forming patterns and making connections because the
subconscious mind likes closure. When faced with an incomplete picture, the brain
works to complete the mental image by inferring the missing information. The brain
works the same way on an unsolved problem or challenge; it loves to dive right in and
get the job done. Our minds fill in shapes and patterns based on our expectations and
assumptions.
Connections can be based on differences as well as similarities. For example, our minds
easily connect chair and table, ham and eggs, brother and sister. To enhance your
ability to see patterns and make connections, start looking for them in everyday things:
Junk mail. Scan your mail before you throw it out. What new trends do you see
in advertising and marketing? What new products and values catch your eye? Let
your junk mail accumulate for a month and take note of what you see when you
pause and go through it.
Popular music. What are the trends in music? Is it getting louder or softer?
More intimate or more intimidating? Is it more culturally diverse? Have the
instruments changed? Do radio stations play more or less variety than five years
ago?
Bookstores. Are there any consistent topics among best-sellers? What about
magazine covers? What values does popular culture display? Why are they
portrayed as such?
TV shows. What are the trends in prime-time television? What kinds of
characters are portrayed on family shows now? Why are there plenty of shows
about doctors, lawyers, and police, and so few about scientists, politicians, and
engineers?
TV commercials. What products or services do you see advertised the most?
Are there new production techniques, or are old ones being revived? What time
of day are the best commercials on? The worst? Who is the intended audience
for a particular commercial?
Original ideas come from recognizing new connections between familiar things and
transforming them into something new. So the next time you see a pattern -- whether it
comes from a beetle grub chewing through a log, or the pile of junk mail sitting on your
countertop -- pause for a moment and ask yourself, “How can I relate this to something
I already know well?” You’ll be amazed at what you can come up with!
TAGS: products, services, innovation, patterns, connections, transforming, business,
leaders, managers