It is in intercultural conversations and, above all, in interdisciplinarity where the spark that leads to creativity, innovation and change leaps. Innovation occurs in open minds, capable of breaking schemes and teaming up with other people of different backgrounds. It is precisely because of these differences that surprises arise, unexpected thoughts, something hybrid and new.
It is the mixture of knowledge that had never before combined what generates the discovery. Hybridity arises from exchange, from fusion, from crossing.
Remember Steve Jobs? As part of his anecdotes the executive of Apple had at the time, how he abandoned his university studies due to its high cost; but decided to attend as a listener to other types of classes that seemed interesting to him, and to which he surely would not have come if he had continued with his studies. One of those classes was Calligraphy, which did not seem very useful at the time. He attended that class because “he was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can not grasp, and he considered it fascinating,” Jobs said. None of the elective subjects he studied at Reed College had practical application, and yet ten years later he used all that knowledge in the design process of the first Macintosh computer. This knowledge of calligraphy made the Macintosh have multiple types of letters and was the first computer to have a beautiful calligraphy. His influence was great for the other manufacturers that came out later.
Currently there is a growing need to innovate, and it is at the intersection of the different knowledge areas where this process is housed. Until now, most companies have developed a series of products and services framed within the same discipline, targeting the same market. They draw a Cartesian direction that in turn becomes a constraint on innovation. With hybrid thinking opens a new path based on the eclectic, in connecting pieces never before aligned. An example of this is biometrics, which combines biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, design, mathematics and electronics, to study biological structures and learn from their nature, strategy and solutions, and then use them in different fields. We must thank this discipline, the appearance of Velcro, for example.
What is happening in companies?
Companies today are more reluctant to change, especially if there are major transformations, innovations and strategic changes. This attitude is not viable today. We live in a hyperconnected global economy with very rapid changes, diverse, complex and of great magnitude (the VUCA environments). In this sense Daniel Pink, author of the book Una nueva mente, explains that those who considered the foundations of success are changing from the information era to the conceptual era, where he points out that the sequential, rational and analytical thinking of the era of the information leaves its place to a much more holistic, global, creative and empathic thinking. In his book he points out that the maximum specialization leaves room for the need to find minds with broad, multifaceted visions, with the capacity to have a global vision and great capacity to unite different concepts or links.
In this same line, John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, indicates that the future of economic development will depend, to a large extent, on a migration from the professions focused on reasoning and logic (STEM: science, technology, engineering and maths) to holistic professions, such as those he defines under the acronym IDEA (intuition, design, emotion and art).
People with a hybrid profile are going to be more and more necessary. This type of people, with different types of education and experiences (professional, cultural, geographical, etc.), will be the most apt to connect different nexuses and ideas, which in turn will generate new ideas and solutions adapted to the changing world in the one that we live today. The brain works by associations, and the more varied the previous knowledge and experience, the more capacity there will be to generate new ideas and associations.
There are big differences between the most innovative companies and those that maintain their status quo. Companies start to exist that address problems and challenges through methodologies and processes that were originally excluded or relegated to design or innovation units, such as design thinking, when considering their challenges. Many already understand the strategic importance of this vision and that “design” does not refer to the visual or the design of the product, but to a way of managing certain strategies that are increasingly important. It is no longer a process of a few collaborators that are in an isolated department of 3rd or 4th level in the organization, but a key piece, looking for the transversality of the entire organization. In the most advanced companies, this function is integrated into the strategic planning and the Management Committee, since it is conceived as a vital tool for the future of the companies.
How to incorporate it?
The first step towards a more holistic vision is the formation of multidisciplinary teams. Leaving behind the silos of specialists (financial for some topics, technicians for others, etc.) and are integrated together, also inviting open profiles, such as designers and creatives, and adding more humanistic and empathic profiles that had not previously been considered , as people with a background in anthropology or sociology. They begin to collaborate together from the beginning of the project in linear processes. Many work hand in hand with external design and innovation companies, accustomed to this type of approach, such as IDEO, Frog Design or Nurun.
This new approach is very powerful if we compare it with the classic structures. The multidisciplinary teams provide very different and fresh visions, where some go nurturing others from initially opposing points, solving a process or organizational problem under a design vision. The connections are generated, exposed and crossed between the members of the group, and that creates new ones. This is the basis of design thinking, which emulates the way of solving problems, for this reason it must be done in very collaborative environments, totally oriented to action, interaction and co-creation, opposed to autonomous or isolated work.
Based on this model, the scheme of multidisciplinary teams in companies focused on innovation is usually made up of different profiles with different specializations. While these models are much more efficient when looking for solutions and innovation in this era, we understand that the greatest power is achieved when the person has a hybrid profile. In this way, the entire process of “connection of the points” to which we referred occurs within the brains themselves, making connections infinitely richer, and the effect and ability to generate new ideas and innovative solutions multiply.
Examples of those who lead these processes today
In addition to the companies mentioned, there are organizations whose objective is to help groups to innovate, to develop products, services and business models adapted to this conceptual era. Many of them have their origin in the design itself, such as IDEO or Frog Design; others, in strategic consulting, marketing, communication or user experience (Fahrenheit 212, IdeoCouture, Fjord, Designit or Nurun).
Possibly, the purest example of hybrid profiles is the company Jump Associates, in Silicon Valley, with Dev Patnaik (co-founder and CEO of the company, professor of Innovation at Stanford and author of the book Wired to Care). Patnaik tells the effort they make to find these hybrid profiles – a mixture of humanist, technologist and capitalist – and that the added value they provide is unbeatable. Its approach is that people must have the capacity of strategic vision to analyze future scenarios and opportunities, empathy and the humanist profile to understand and design solutions focused on what people need and the analytical and business capacity to define models and sustainable business plans. A clear example is a collaborator of her team, a graduate in Psychology in Israel, who has worked in technology in the Israeli army, who has a master’s degree in Design in the United States and who is now a member of Jump Associates.
Is a problem of teaching and culture?
Until now, the problem is that education models are still focused on specialization. The analytical evaluation (IQ, or intelligence test, SAT, GMAT of access to Universities, etc.) continues to prevail and not holistic and global evaluation. At a cultural level, companies expect a linear progression in people. Diversity and multidisciplinary are not rewarded, but rather the opposite. In the Universities – in the whole world in general and in Costa Rica in particular – the models of the information age are still rooted. However, that is transforming. They begin to see centers that are changing the panorama of radical form: the own University of Stanford, every day bringing more the Business School to the DSchool; the Parsons School in New York, a pillar in art and design that incorporates business into its programs, the Royal College of Art in England, where it offers an excellent training in art that has joined the Imperial Business School, or the Rotman School of Management, which is increasingly focused on design thinking and innovation models.
In the region we have a great opportunity for improvement. We must recover leadership positions in innovation, and for that we must adapt to the requirements of the conceptual era in which we are. Changes have to be addressed both from educational and cultural centers and from professional areas to train multidisciplinary people who have developed a hybrid way of thinking.
In this sense we need: “People who learn to see projects in their entirety and who know how to establish new associations of ideas from their experiences and knowledge. People, who can connect and generate new ideas with other multidisciplinary profiles.”
If we work in this line, companies will be impacted and the development of the country will be promoted. In these times that we live so convulsive it is necessary to focus efforts on it.
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