On the desk of our president sits a 227 page report that was created in December 2019 in a workshop of over 50 innovators and creative thinkers from labs, offices and think tanks around the country.
The aim of the report was to blend fourth industrial technology to current socio-economic problems that the country was facing, with the simple question underpinning the methodology, “What would the impact be, if this problem was solved?” The result was the aforementioned report, spelling out the most critical problems in South Africa and coupled with this, some of the most innovative solutions that a room full of creative innovators could come up with.
It was with great intrigue that I got to participate in this workshop and the designing of these solutions. The energy from these types of minds is palpable, like a swarm of bees that emits a hum. The report has caused the same buzz in education, calling for children to be exposed to innovative thinking and creative problem solving earlier on in their development. And what educators and parents who were not raised or educated in this manner struggle to conceptualise, is how. How do we enable minds to unlock powerful inventiveness that creates real social and economic value?
I believe that many parents, myself included, have grappled with the how innovation can be instilled and more so, as an educator – how to teach it.
The origins of the word ‘innovation’ lie in the term ‘creative destruction’. This is a verb that requires action. And the action is to peel apart two ideas, concepts or solutions and remove the intrinsic value and then “Frankenstein” the two together in order to serve a new market, with a new solution.
What parents also need to understand is that innovation doesn’t mean the invention of something brand new or radical innovation. Adding incremental value to something that already exists is also innovative. The process of being able to dissect value and apply it to a new situation for new people is what is important when innovating.
We play a simple game with the kids we work with at FutureProof that gets kids comfortable with the action of ‘creative destruction’ (innovation) and that is to list a set of farm animals – for example cows, pigs, sheep and so on. And then list a set of household items like a toaster or fridge. Then, by meshing the two together, we create additional value to add to the household item. The results have been wonderful to see. Kids have come up with fridges that churn cream into butter and toasters that toast bacon!
What is important at this stage of cultivating innovation in children is not to focus on what is possible and practical, but to let them have free reign with their imaginations to creatively destroy two items, whether literally or figuratively, and as they grow up the constraints of time, budget and feasibility can be added to make what is impossible, possible.
And then the question can even be asked of our young innovators and inventors, “What would the impact be, if this problem was solved?”
By Lisa Illingworth, www.futureproofsa.com.