I once read, “ innovation is the transformation of Art into Science”. – Clayton M. Christensen, “Seeing What’s Next“
The first thing that popped into my head was my University days, and the Arts & Science program at UofT. But after thinking about it further I tend to see what the author is getting at. When we innovate, we are trying to take things that are based on intuition and turning them into logic. Think of Google search as an example.
Looking at the fastest growing area of innovation today, Analytics. In particular with prescriptive, and even more so with predictive analytics, the objective is to create functions on data in order to prescribe an action or predict behavior. Both today are predominantly dependent on Subject Matter Expertise (SME), which is a combination of skill, experience and ultimately intuition. Yet in more and more areas, analytics software is being designed to replace human expertise.
I’ve always been interested in cognitive science, so I’m curious as to how innovation relates to brain function.
The theory of the structure and functions of the mind suggests that the two different sides of the brain control two different “modes” of thinking (see diagram). The left and right hemispheres of our brain process information in different ways.
Given the Art vs. Scientific modes of the brain, physically divided into two hemispheres. And given the definition of innovation defined above. Could it be possible that the ability for humans to innovate relies on the balance and connectivity between these two hemispheres?
If so, then the development of the corpus callosum, a bundle of axons which bridges and links these two hemispheres, would play a major role in the person’s ability to be a natural innovator. This would however have to be paired with a fairly balanced left-right brain. Right brain cognition would handle conceptualizing abstract thought patterns, then bridge and related them to logical patterns via left brain cognition.
This can also occur in a 3 stage process: analyze an existing logical process or pattern via right brain, bridge to left brain to abstract and generalize the pattern, then redefine a new logical pattern, thereby potentially applying an existing solution in a new innovative way.
I should be feeling my corpus callosum firing as I type this … but until then this will (literally) be stuck in my head.
