Reinventing the Wheel
Author: Steve Wallis

Conventional wisdom is short and snappy. It provides a simple answer that seems to address a complex situation. Social commentator H. L. Mencken said it best when he wrote, “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” Conventional wisdom is an oxymoron. Although it is common, it is rarely wise.

This is especially prevalent in the daily rush of business. Just stand there and look thoughtful for a moment and someone will tell you, “Don't reinvent the wheel. Just get to work.” When you read business magazines, it's the same thing, “Don't think for yourself; just follow the ideas of the guru of the week.” It really bugs me is when they say this about gurus who are promoting innovation!

I was conducting a process analysis at a firm I'll call “Strictly Business, Inc.” This was a nose-to-the grindstone; no-nonsense financial services organization that was highly productive. The top manager told me that they would, in all likelihood, be shut down by corporate in two to three years because their office was unable to adapt to the changing market. It was death by productivity - they were too busy working to change the way they worked.

My goal is to promote creativity - and reinventing the wheel is what creativity is all about. So lets talk about reinventing the wheel - and creating some success through creativity.

The wheel was invented about 3,000 BCE near the Black Sea. There was quite a lot of reinventing for about a thousand years. By then, they had big wheels for ox wagons and spoked wheels for chariots. They did so well that no significant innovations in the wheel occurred for over 3,500 years. It wasn't until the late 1700's that wheels were reinvented - soon, they were made of iron and used for early trains, which were running by the early 1800's.

Look at the wheels in your life. On toys, power tools, furniture, bicycles, trains, planes, and cars. Stop by your tire store or local “auto row” and see all the different kinds of wheels they have. Each of those wheels was invented, reinvented and re-reinvented more times that we can count! It's a good thing, too. Imagine your car with wooden wheels. You wouldn't go very far and you wouldn't go very fast.

When someone says, "Don't reinvent the wheel," what I hear is "Don't be creative." This is a crying shame and a shameful crime. Creativity is the one thing that sets us apart from animals - and we want to squelch it? Sure, there will be the occasional emergency where reinventing the wheel might be inappropriate or even dangerous. If it is a true emergency, however, everyone will know it - so there is no need to say it.

Why can't we stop for a moment and think? Are our jobs are on the line? Is the company in trouble? Is the competition heating up? Product quality is low? Profits are down? If we have these serious problems, we need creativity to solve them. As Einstein was fond of saying, “We cannot solve problems using the same thinking that created them.”

There are those who will boldly stand against creativity. They say innovation takes too much time, the new way might not work, or that some jobs just can't be creative.

Heck, why not MAKE those jobs more creative? Creativity and innovation add value to products and services. It's obvious. Besides, as you experiment, you gain experience at innovation. That means the next time you do try something creative, you are more likely to be successful. If time is your gremlin, focus your powers of innovation on creating new methods of time management. If you are afraid the innovation might fail, relax. It's easy to bring others into the process in a way that virtually guarantees success.

I recall Bill, a supervisor whose creativity ran amuck. He cranked out ideas like nobody's business. Whatever idea came out last ended up being the marching orders of the day. Bill's crew found themselves installing big bollards of concrete and steel to protect saplings located on the edge of nowhere. I'll bet dollars to donuts that work crew came up with any number of ideas that were better than Bill's. But they weren't consulted - they were not made part of the creative process.

The first rule is to bring a lot of people into the process. Picture your team brainstorming new product ideas with the customer in the room. Bob says, “What about a pink colored widget?” Mary and Joe look sour and say, “it's a stupid idea,” but the customer thinks, “With weird colored widgets, we could improve our productivity and reduce errors by color coding our sub-assemblies.”

There is another benefit to increased participation. When people are involved with the creative process, they are more enthusiastic and have greater buy-in to the results. The rest of the process involves developing a lot of ideas - then refining and building on those ideas to create the best innovation possible.

The process and results apply to social innovation as well. You are certainly a big wheel in your own family. You are also a wheel in your profession, community, and work. Shouldn't you look for opportunities to reinvent yourself and your community? Let's go beyond reinventing the wheel; let's reinvent the axle, drive train, and engine, too.

Change is going to happen. Every time we move, we change. The wheel will be reinvented. The only question is, will you be on the receiving end of someone else's changes? Or, will you lead the charge to change? Will you encourage those around you to look at problems and opportunities with fresh eyes, develop lots of new ideas, refine and build those ideas to invent an even better wheel?

For many more amazing ways to access and build your five senses, ten intelligences and five cognitive types, check out: “Easy Genius: Awakening Your Whole Brain to Build a More Powerful Memory” available at http://www.easygenius.net.








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Steve Wallis, (M.A. Psychology) is a Ph.D. student at Fielding Graduate Institute where he is developing Negentropy applications to boost individual and organizational efficacy. An irrepressible innovator and author of numerous articles, he creates unique tools to support trainers, consultants, and managers. Steve has served as adjunct faculty at Sonoma State University, University of Phoenix, and the University of San Francisco.

Copyright 2003 Steve Wallis – All rights reserved

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