Innovation Culture: Analytical and Intuitive Thinking Framing Post
This post is to trigger dialogue on innovation in the moderated Twitter #innochat on Thursday, March 25 at Noon, EST (USA) – all interested parties are welcome to join in. Follow #innochat to join at that time.

Fred Collopy, a professor at the Case Western Reserve University in the Weatherhead School of Management, explored the architect/artist/designer Maya Lin’s design method in a great chapter in the book, Managing as Designing. The quote that struck me as being very apropos for innovators is from Lin, when she stated, “My creative process balances analytical study, based very much on research, with, in the end, a purely intuitive gesture.” I see that this combination of approaches to innovation challenges, marrying the analytical and intuitive, as essential to discovering and creating the best solution to meet the existing need.

Below is a scan of the map that Collopy developed to describe Maya Lin’s process. (Click to enlarge)

An innovation culture is one that strives to create solutions to its most pressing challenges, including (perhaps, especially) those of its clients. It is a robust, searching culture. Intellectually curious and driven to results, it rides a line between the discovery of the new and the direct and specific application of that discovery to meet a present need.

Innovators act differently than analysts or decision-makers. They act differently than artists. Innovators need to borrow from both to be successful. Innovation can be an extreme practice. It tends to call on all of the faculties of those engaged in it. It is driven by the immediate context. It is driven to specific outcomes. It engages the whole person’s mind. It doesn’t reside solely in the domain of analysis or solely in the domain of creativity. It straddles both, or better yet, leans into one or the other as necessary for the task or challenge at hand.

That balance is key.

Questions to ponder:
1. Do you agree that innovation demands both analytical and intuitive thinking? (Why?)
2. How do you combine both of these practices in your innovation work (with clients in particular)?
3. What challenges do you experience in trying to accommodate both ways of thinking (and acting)?

Additional readings in the following links if you’d like to explore further:
A series in John Nofsinger’s blog at Psychology Today on Analytical/Intuitive Thinking
Part I – Determine your thinking process
Part II – Know yourself
Part III – Risk aversion
Part IV – Patience

The home of the website supporting Managing by Design at the Weatherhead School of Management