the
innovative LEDGER
An e-Newsletter from The Innovative Edge™ Inc.
Vol.
6, No. 9 - September 2006
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When
Expertise is for the Birds
By Jeff Govendo
Several
weeks ago my wife and I signed up for a bird watching class at Acadia
National Park in Maine, where we spend a couple weeks each summer.
Neither of us had ever done "birding" before, but we
had our binoculars with us, and so decided to give it a try. How hard
could it be? Just look in the trees and find birds, right?
We
drove up to the parking area where the class was meeting. Though we
expected the naturalist to take us to some spectacular vantage point,
like a craggy lookout in one of the surrounding hills or deep into
the forest, we remained right there in the parking area where, come
to think of it, there were plenty of birds flying about.
Staying
near the car, in fact, turned out to be a fantastic idea, as it didn't
take us long to discover we were completely out of our element.
"Look!" the naturalist would exclaim, "a wood thrush!"
whereupon everyone in the group would turn in unison, binoculars trained
and focused, and exult in near-simultaneous recognition. Everyone,
that is, except us. We'd be sweeping our binoculars left and right,
up and down, fumbling with the focus wheel, all to get a view of...
nothing. By the time we'd find the approximate location, the bird
was already miles away, while the rest of the class was busy finding
another.
After
about 20 minutes of this, the naturalist made a joke. Having made
a somewhat unusual sighting for this time of year, he quipped, "Next
thing you know, we'll see a lone cedar waxwing!" Peals of laughter
followed. (Seems the bird watching crowd enjoys a good joke as much
as anyone.) At this, my wife and I looked at one another and said,
"We're outta here."
There
are many activities in which at least a working knowledge, if not
outright expertise, is a pre-requisite to meaningful participation.
Driving a car, performing surgery or teaching schoolchildren are several
that come to mind (and now of course, bird watching).
This
is not necessarily the case, though, for creative brainstorming, whether
for new product ideas or new ways of conducting business. True, it
helps if each contributor has at least a basic, conceptual understanding
of what the group is after. But beyond that it's not essential --
or even desirable -- for every person to have deep technical or operational
knowledge of the field in which the group is working. Too much
expertise can limit the group's ability to think broadly and imaginatively,
when just such an approach is needed to come up with ideas that break
new ground.
When
a brainstorming group has a least several members who don't know what
"doesn't work," and they're not shy about contributing ideas,
the group is much more likely to produce a wide range of possibilities
from which to choose. Among these might be the "unpolished
gem" that could be the seed of a great new idea for a product
or service offering.
But
experts can take heart! They are certainly needed after the initial
idea generation to transform a creative, beginning idea into an actual
working concept or prototype. In this phase of the innovation process,
there is no substitute for deep technical knowledge, market savvy
and business acumen to bring a new idea to life.
Also,
these people get all the inside jokes.
