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Opinion: Phenomenology of innovation

Opinion: Phenomenology of innovation Nathan Harter nathan.harter@cnu.edu How do people experience innovation, from the inside? Psychologists such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [1] offer metaphors such as “flow” and “being in the zone”, but phenomenology is not the same thing as psychology [2]. Phenomenology is a philosophical inquiry about what it is possible to access within ourselves, an investigation (in other words) into the structures of consciousness. Somehow, somewhere in the structures of consciousness – or we might say on the threshold of consciousness, new thoughts and ideas emerge like gifts from the sea. It makes sense for a scientist of innovation to understand the structures where this can be said to happen. 1. LUCK In some cases, of course, innovation appears to be the product of dumb luck, a strange or unlikely occurrence that may not even reveal its usefulness at first. Such was the adhesive that made possible the post-it note by 3M – an adhesive that didn’t stick. The first Nobel Prize in Physics was given to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who had stumbled upon what he called “x-rays” while investigating something completely different. In our noodling around, apparently, sometimes things just sort of happen to us. Still, dumb luck or not, somebody http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Innovation Science Emerald Publishing

Opinion: Phenomenology of innovation

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
1757-2223
DOI
10.1260/1757-2223.4.3.185
Publisher site
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Abstract

Nathan Harter nathan.harter@cnu.edu How do people experience innovation, from the inside? Psychologists such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [1] offer metaphors such as “flow” and “being in the zone”, but phenomenology is not the same thing as psychology [2]. Phenomenology is a philosophical inquiry about what it is possible to access within ourselves, an investigation (in other words) into the structures of consciousness. Somehow, somewhere in the structures of consciousness – or we might say on the threshold of consciousness, new thoughts and ideas emerge like gifts from the sea. It makes sense for a scientist of innovation to understand the structures where this can be said to happen. 1. LUCK In some cases, of course, innovation appears to be the product of dumb luck, a strange or unlikely occurrence that may not even reveal its usefulness at first. Such was the adhesive that made possible the post-it note by 3M – an adhesive that didn’t stick. The first Nobel Prize in Physics was given to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who had stumbled upon what he called “x-rays” while investigating something completely different. In our noodling around, apparently, sometimes things just sort of happen to us. Still, dumb luck or not, somebody

Journal

International Journal of Innovation Science – Emerald Publishing

Published: Sep 1, 2012

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