Stephen ShapiroFAST Innovation® · Innovation made practical, personal, and playful—with lasting impact. Hall of Fame Speaker. Author of seven books on innovation. Creator of Personality Poker®.

Expertise is the Enemy of Innovation | Innovation Minute Ep. 20

Name: Expertise is the Enemy of Innovation | Innovation Minute Ep. 20
Uploaded: 2017-02-03T21:46:07+00:00
Duration: 1 min 7 s
Channel: Stephen Shapiro
Description: Stephen Shapiro argues (in a short "Innovation Minute" video) that expertise can be an obstacle to innovation because deep familiarity with a function or…

3 Feb 2017 · 1 min

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1:07

Stephen Shapiro argues (in a short "Innovation Minute" video) that expertise can be an obstacle to innovation because deep familiarity with a function or industry makes it harder to think differently. He references a prior example (a toothpaste idea inspired by a laundry-detergent solution) as a kickstarter technique and recommends connecting ideas across disciplines to overcome expertise-driven blindness; he says he will expand on connecting disciplines in the next video.

Chapters

In the last video I talked about toothpaste solution coming from a laundry detergent solution. We talked about how do you ask who else has solved a similar problem. This is a great tool for kickstarting any of your innovation efforts when you're looking for solutions. Now the reason why this is important is because I strongly believe that Expertise the enemy of innovation Expertise is the enemy of innovation. The reason why is the more you thought about a topic, the harder it is for you to think differently about that topic. So if you're an expert in a function like hr, finance or sales, it's going to be hard for you to think differently about that. If you're an expert in an industry like hospitality, financial services or manufacturing, it would be difficult for you to think differently about that. Therefore, because expertise is the enemy of innovation, we need to recognize that connecting the dots to other disciplines is the key and I'm going to talk about this more in the next video.