Outsiders are wonderful for innovation.
By: Manojeet Bhujabal
Tags: Design, Ideas, Creativity, Imagination, Innovation

If you have outliers and outsiders in your team, cherish them and their insights as they do wonders for your organisation. If you don’t have them, adopt an open innovation model.

The biggest of innovations and creative disruptions are catalyzed by the outsiders, the fresh pairs of eyes and ears. The strangers in the midst, who could be contrarian in thought and who suddenly shake up the industry norm and leave it changed for the better.

A Cirque du Soleil conflated the world of theatre & wondrous human possibilities in a script and format that disrupted the world of the circus. Not just disrupted but value created a brand new category. A blue ocean was born. This was the theatre of human possibilities.

Air BNB was founded by designers. When the conventional business was busy looking at hospitality being the preserve of hotels, resorts and whatnots, Air BNB imagined the homeowners, to be the largest potential supply of an alternative hospitality. One that was warmer, more authentic, closer to communities and more adventurous. While being easier on the pocket.

They haven’t looked back since with their network multiplier model.

It was an outsider’s insight that joined the dots between opportunities, new technology capabilities and the shifting consumer trends.

The list goes on with disruptive ventures that have impacted public life and markets like the Amul milk revolution at Anand in India, Taleo, Intuit, Sulabh Sauchalya, McDonald’s and franchising, Netflix and more.

So what makes outliers and outsiders special?

(1) Outsiders are most often more atypical.

She / he is not benumbed by the usual or the regulation drill. Often insiders can be phlegmatic and happy with the pastures and the lazy breeze. Any challenge to the “normal” way of life is seen as a threat to the orderly way of things. Today agility in the face of ever changing opportunities, is the most valuable currency. Today if as a business, you are not imagining and acting upon threats to your business model, someone else will be conceiving ventures and ideas that will simply disrupt you out of the market.

Diversity in thinking and project teams is critical, whether you are talking of public policy, business management, design solutions or solving a problem. If the same pairs of eyes are going to be looking at the problem, chances are you will not be coming up with a new solution. The situation demands either new lenses or outside eyes looking in.

(2) Outsiders are wired to spot the wood amongst the trees.

Creative disruptors are wired differently. And this wiring is a function of many things — inherent DNA, sum of experiences, a mind that’s been trained to go behind the data and patterns and love for adventure. They consider the atypical, circle the non-obvious and are not hypnotized by the patterns. To spot while scanning, is an innovator’s biggest competitive advantage.

Put these outsiders with the industry “insiders” and you would be pleasantly surprised by the number of productive ideas and hacks that would be generated. And as Edison remarked, (and this is for the cynics) even if you don’t find success you would have discovered hundreds of ways of possible failures, which could have been like the death traps for your business.

Often the approach of “things have always been like this” is what prevents one from breakthrough thinking, and what can be reimagined. Patterned thinking is great and has efficiencies but often misses the wood for the trees.

In venture design for instance, it is abductive logic that is super-productive and not deductive logic that management consultants often use. Deductive logic relies on patterns, trends and the accepted laws. But today the world is more uncertain and ambiguous than yesterday. And this requires abductive reasoning which looks beyond the patterns and the usual.

(3) Outsiders are either brave enough or have the license to ask the “dumb” questions.

Disruptors and innovators often start by asking questions that the industry insiders could pooh-pooh as dumb or as obvious. Often incumbents might not take too kindly to change or can worry that it upsets the hierarchy of thinking (the boss man in many organisations is looked upon as the only fountain of innovation and right thinking).

Outsiders ask these questions not to test intelligence or compete. They do it simply because they are not afraid or not programmed enough to not ask questions. They often prod and question the framework itself which could be hiding the path to new solutions. They come in with zero pre-conceptions about the industry and being “dumb” enough could very well hold the keys to some of the insightful questions and disruptive answers.

For conventional industries and corporates, to work with such interdisciplinary “outside” teams has tremendous advantages. The diverse skills, experiences and fresh perspectives that “outsider — catalysts” bring could very well be the recipe to discover the new and reimagine the status quo.