ESIP and Innovation

Innovation is a common buzzword across all sectors and while a clear definition remains elusive, the problems we are facing are increasingly complex and need new, arguably innovative, approaches. In a recent study by Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen, they looked for common traits found among people thought to be highly innovative. Their conclusion was that innovators consistently do five things:

• Questioning allows innovators to break out of the status quo and consider new possibilities.
• Through observing, innovators detect small behavioral details—in the activities of customers, suppliers, and other companies—that suggest new ways of doing things.
• In experimenting they relentlessly try on new experiences and explore the world.
• And through networking with individuals from diverse backgrounds, they gain radically different perspectives.

These four patterns of action together help innovators associate to cultivate new insights. Like DNA everyone inherently has these innovation skills, but no person combines them in the same way. Unlike DNA, the skills can also be practiced, innovators consistently act differently to think differently and by understanding these skills innovation organizationally can be enhanced.

If you ask ESIP members about benefits they get from participating in ESIP activities and meetings it always revolves around their ability to do their own work better. Many mention these components of innovation in their answers (2012 Winter Meeting Survey)- the benefit of idea exchange, networking or learning new things. These habits and thought processes provide a framework of specific actions and metrics that might be helpful in understanding, explaining to others, what it is about ESIP that makes it a productive space to work and how to continually create an innovative space for the Earth science informatics community to work. This discussion starts with some ideas from The Innovator's DNA. It will be filled out by stories that members tell!

Observing

Innovators are constantly observing how things are done. Observation allows for problems and solutions to emerge. Innovators carefully, consistently and intentionally look at the details and then ask questions.

Questioning

Innovators ask provocative questions - what if? why? why not? They think about opposites and don't panic about picking a solution. Instead, they are able to synthesize the two, creating a superior solution. Finally, the questions provide constraints - what if we were legally required... what if we were prohibited from doing what we do now?

• What specific ESIP events have helped members bring innovative ideas back from ESIP meetings to their organizations?
• How have other ESIP members helped to effectively bring those ideas to fruition?
• Is that because some element of ESIP's organization makes it somehow inherently innovative?

Experimenting

Innovators try out new ideas, failing fast and often. Unlike observation, experiments provide interactive experiences to try out, provoke and see what insights emerge. This could be intellectual exploration, not necessarily physical. In an organizational setting, it is important to foster a culture of exploration and experimentation.

• ESIP Testbed -

Networking

Innovators devote time and energy to finding and testing ideas (observing and experimenting) through a network of diverse contacts with radically different perspectives. Innovators network outside of their own field and attend idea conferences and are constantly making connections to other places not specific to their field.

• ESIP specifically attracts members from historically different networks
• ESIP acts as an idea conference?

Associating

Associating, or the ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas from different fields, is central to the innovator’s DNA. Associating is only possible because of the exposure to a diverse array of people and ideas through the first four skills.