Happy minds do innovative things.

I am Ankit Priyadarshi, an automobile engineer. I'd like to share my perspective on innovation and how it comes about.

I have been in this profession for a little over seven years now, and there have been many instances where I have created something new that, when I think about it now, bears a stamp of my personality!

In other words: I have innovated!

I had heard of the word "innovation" since I was a kid, but it wasn't until I started my career that I got a feel for the idea. When I entered the corporate world, "innovation" was the buzzword par excellence.

I remember a few months had passed when my company held an innovation contest where we had to submit some innovative ideas and if we were selected, we would get the resources to work on them. Of course, that was if the idea fit within the scope of the organization. There were a select few who participated, but it seemed that this contest was not popular with the masses!

I heard of another such venture in another company where my friend worked. and surprisingly the turnout was similar. Some time passed when I came across an article that discussed the reasons why such contests fail.

I was intrigued and spent a lot of time thinking about it. After doing my best to understand it, and doing my own share of innovative things, I think I've figured out the reason...

... "Why do innovation contests fail?"

In my opinion, it seems that "innovation" is like "Eldorado" for the business world! (Eldorado is a fictional city of gold!) Everyone is looking for it, every now and then someone or some organizations find leads (good ideas that can be valued in gold!), but not to the extent they really want!

Sometimes, to find the answer to a question, we need to understand what is the bigger problem raised by the question. I mean, sometimes a problem raised by a question is not the main problem, there might be a more important problem that is the cause of the other problems.

So we need to be able to scrutinize the context in which the question was raised.

If we think a bit about why innovation contests fail, we can easily observe a few things:

1. Organizations are desperate to bring innovation to what they do! So much so that they are willing to organize competitions in search of ideas!
2. Employees are unable to do so, even for a direct incentive!
3. This is not the case of a single organization!

So what am I trying to imply here? Have I cracked it, have I found a road map to mass innovation...?

I wouldn't tell you!:) ( I actually haven't )

So what else do I have to offer?

As I said, I have done innovation and I will share with you an insight into my thought process as well as the environment that produced the innovation!

So to really understand why innovation contests are not able to bring about the innovation we want, we must first understand how it comes about?

CASE STUDY: How does innovation come about?

Let me share with you an innovation that I have done!

I will share an idea that I generated while doing some fun things for myself! Now whether it was big or small, I will leave it up to you to decide! For me, it definitely improved the quality of the results.

If I describe it briefly, I used certain software to do something it wasn't really meant for.

Basically, I realized that you can do something completely different with it than what the manufacturers advertise! This realization saved me a lot of time and energy.

I worked on designing a "Shish Mahal" which means glass palace! (I do this sort of thing in my spare time) :)

If you have visited some of the many forts and palaces of the ancient rulers in India, you may have come across them! They are a room or palace filled with all sizes of glass pieces that also serve as mirrors. They are truly beautiful!

I wanted to remodel a room in my house that is embedded with small pieces of glass. To add to the wow factor, I thought it would be nice to have a spot in this room where you can watch every nook and cranny of the room! Something like a natural CCTV camera system.

And all just by reflecting the light in the right way, through an array of mirrors.

Of course, this would require a series of mirrors that can reflect light from every part of the room! Needless to say, this would require some theoretical calculations to figure out how the light would fall on the mirror and how it would be reflected.

As I told you, I am an automotive engineer, and my job requires me to design things, using CAD software packages. (CAD stands for computer-aided design software) They create a graphical environment where we can create 3-D models. So I created the 3-D model of this Glass Palace or the 'Shish Mahal'.

My idea was to position the mirrors that can act as CCTV for the room, and then place so many mirrors next to them that they remain hidden. (I think this is where I got really imaginative :) )

Now there is another software that renders a model. Now if you think this is getting too technical, let me tell you that PHOTO -REALISTIC RENDERING software helps you know what a design will actually look like after it is manufactured.

I used software like this to get a feel for how it would look, but then I realized you can use it for something better!

Photorealistic rendering software gives you the option to add an environment, and if you choose a metal as the material for your part, then its surface can also reflect the image of the environment!

Suddenly it occurred to me that I'm dealing with mirrors, some flat, some curved (concave or convex). If I model them accurately and choose their material to be something reflective, then they would act like real mirrors in the virtual environment!

So this saved me several trials and errors. I was able to see in the virtual environment itself, the correct position of the mirrors to make the right arrangement for A Natural CCTV!

Not only did this save me a lot of calculations, but it also provided an efficient solution!

Well, I will build this room full of mirrors one day, still, the design is in progress, and the budget/financing aspects are being worked out! :)

In the meantime, let's explore the environment that led to this innovation.

Let's list all the factors that contributed to it...

Let us first look at all the aspects that led to this innovation:

Information-

The importance of information can never be underestimated. I think it's pretty obvious that in order to use something innovatively, you need to have complete or in-depth knowledge of that thing and also a sense of what you want to achieve. Just like I had deep knowledge about rendering software.

Control -

the power to be flexible and make decisions! I sometimes imagine how different it would have been if I had worked in a company under a supervisor. If I came up with what seemed like a new idea that I wanted to explore, I would usually have been told to do what was required by default first. Only then should I try something new. Otherwise, if I found out along the way that the standard way wasn't enough, only then would I have been given the green light to try a new approach!

The motivation to design something great, and also the belief that I could do something off the beaten track -

do you know where I got the confidence to take on such a task? In fact, I was appreciated at work for a design I did! It really boosted my morale, and that day I saw a movie that showed a glass palace or Sheesh Mahal. I thought I could design one myself! Also, I wanted to do something unique, so I came up with the idea of a natural CCTV system made only of mirrors! I think my luck was directly proportional to the influx of ideas!

I was able to use my craft not only at work but also in my free time.

We spend a lot of time and energy learning a particular craft and then doing it for a living! Is it fair that at a certain point we only use our professional skills at work to make money? I remember at my college where I studied engineering, there was a subject called "Social Innovation" where we were supposed to use what we learned to do something for society. I understand today how much more important it is for us than for society! Our skills are some of our greatest assets, you can think of ways to use them outside of the workplace. It could be as small as helping a student understand the nuances of their own profession.

I could get myself excited by including pop culture references in my work! -

No job is uncool, I would like to quote the great athlete Mohammed Ali here, he was asked what profession would he have chosen if not boxing? He replied it didn't matter, even as a sweeper he would have been number one in the world! Perhaps it is up to us to find out what aspects of our profession drive us and enjoy it to the full!

I was thinking freely -

I wanted to make a natural CCTV. A requirement to create something unusual was intentionally met! Imagine, in a business, how often do you feel free to take on tasks like this? I feel like people worry more about when they're going to do the task than when they're going to complete it! Even though it is very important, but only if we could be a little fearless to explore new avenues and at the same time smart enough to figure out where they lead? I believe we can bring real value home.

So I get that,

Happy minds with the right orientation can produce the right innovation.

What is the alternative for innovation contests?

The above points, in my opinion, have the potential to provide happiness and proper direction. If these things can be ensured for all people in a group, we need not look for Eldorado,

it could be created!

So if we look at innovation on a large scale (at an organizational level), here's what it's all about:

• Knowledge enhancement of employees.
• Providing employees with flexibility and confidence in their ability to make decisions.
• Ensuring their work-life balance, only then can they use and develop their skills outside the workplace!
• Establishing a culture of appreciation and encouraging innovative working! Birds of a feather flock together! So if the leadership of an organization values and encourages innovation, they will invite the right minds into their organization. If this is not the case at any level of leadership, it would lead to the right talent being sent away!
• The more the employees feel that it is their own product, the more creative and caring they will be!

Finally, I would like to point out that monetary benefits or incentives alone are not enough to meet the above requirements! This is the reason why innovation competitions fail!

Bringing about innovation is like asking the golden geese to lay golden eggs, but at the same time we need to understand and respect the fact that there is a whole process for the formation of the eggs before they come out into the world!)