Our WITWA Chair, Marjolein Towler, had the opportunity to speak about Innovation at the IEEE-WISE conference held in Perth last month. For those of you that couldn’t make the event, Marjolein has generously shared her notes on her view of innovation and why she believes women hold more promise when it comes to innovative thinking.

Duyfken Replica

Sometimes innovation comes about by accident. I always thought that Apple’s Quicktime VR, the 360^o photo panoramas, were a case in point. When they first came out, nobody had any use for them. “They are a solution waiting for a problem,” I distinctly remember my friend and Web collaborator Geoff Jagoe saying. But quickly enough, we found a very good use for them on our Duyfken Replica Website. What better way of seeing the construction of a 16^th Century Ship replica when you cannot visit it in person?

Innovation through necessity

Another common way to experience innovation is through necessity. The publishing sector would be familiar with this – innovate or perish. In the 16th Century, when Gutenberg and others invented movable type, books became an affordable commodity. In the 20^th Century, computers and digital type brought major innovation to the book production process, but the book itself never changed. Did you know that e-books have been around for 20-odd years already? The first e-book publishers were formed here in Perth. They are still around at www.e-book.com. But e-books never really took off until an innovation that allowed them to not change; the digital book reader. 

This did not just change the book production, but the very book itself. But it did not change how people want to read books; what they wanted, where they want. After thousands of years of reading a printed book, we can now store hundreds of books in one small device. Ironically, it was by acknowledging and accommodating human habits - that do not change - that we can all enjoy our Kindles and iPads.

Fostering Innovation

From my experience in my process management consulting, the most effective innovation in process comes through collaborative practices. There is no such thing as a single person’s endeavour anyway. We all build on what has gone before. It is the interdisciplinary approaches – the being forced to think outside of the square - that delivers innovation. Sometimes that means going back to basics, as with the digital book reader.

Are women better innovators?

I do not know if there is a difference between men and women in the way they come to innovation, but I do know the collaborative model comes easier to women than to men. In my experience, women are more apt to share knowledge and exchange ideas for the sake of it, rather than for the pure gain of it. (Not that gains don’t happen without collaboration; many innovative ideas come from a single source.) It means you have to be prepared to give as well as take, and the gains are assigned to the whole, and not just the contributing parts of the collaboration.

Innovation is also about nurturing - of ideas, talent, and vision. Nurturing is something women overall do quite well. I’d go as far to say we’re sort of famous for it although it’s not exclusive to women and thank goodness for that.

How to find it

I think innovation is around us all the time and in great abundance. Small but significant changes and improvements are made to our collective lives all the time. I am very optimistic that this will be so for a long time to come.

What are you favourite examples of innovative thinking? 

Image credits: Duyfken broadside courtesy of the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation, Marjolein Towler courtesy of John Bain at John Bain Photography