Where Does Innovation Come From?

 

I’ve always been very inquisitive about many things including innovation. 

Like many people, the chase of something has always been more interesting than the catch for me.

I tend to be most interested in the “whys”.

I like to know how things work; I’m often consumed in process and many times in areas where most are only interested in outcome.  I’ll work feverishly to comprehend how something works only to move onto the next thing once I’ve obtained the requisite knowledge to benefit from all of the gathered information.  Many of my family and friends think I’m a little nuts as I work so hard to gain mastery of something just to move on once I finally “get it”.

I’ve dabbled in quite a number of things, although there is only one that has passed the test of time.

It all revolves around this thing we are calling RENAISSANCE EXERCISE.

The reason is quite simple; the subject matter can NEVER be completely mastered.

Every time I think I have “it” all figured out, eventually a whole other world opens up and sucks me in far deeper than before.

1) When dealing with this machine we call the human body there are a vast number of variables to study; mechanical, mental, and physiological and within these subjects are many, many subdivisions worthy of study and even if you mastered ALL of these subjects there are still many unknowns.

2)   Even if the subject matter can be mastered, or let’s just say we apply the most fundamental 20% or core information to obtain 80% of the benefit, we still have the stubbornness of mother nature to overcome as the body will never be easily manipulated as it fights back to return to homeostasis in spite of our best effort and information. This all keeps opening up more investigation.

It’s safe to say we have a never ending challenge and I never lose interest in the body beautiful.

This situation appears to be a consistent trait with the RenEx team. This commonality along with accessibility of like-minded people has allowed for TREMENDOUS INNOVATIONS in the last few years. And that in and of itself makes for a VERY interesting subject of study and leads me into a story about the most exciting week of my life.

I’ve always been extremely interested in how people came up with an idea or how they’ve reached a position. How do people do the amazing things they do?

I’ve read much on this subject, some on purpose and many times by accident and there are recurrent themes.  I have included an excellent cartoon to summarize how great ideas develop. I would like to summarize these points in advance.

The number one most important thing ANYONE can do to facilitate an environment to manifest innovation is to create a place where people can develop ideas and allow them to mingle with others that are intellectually compatible in order to allow these ideas to develop and take on new form.

This is the backbone behind the TEAM RENEX approach.

The sum is greater than any of the parts.

Simple right?!

Well it can be assuming that you have access to enough like-minded people, that the group has had enough time and experience to recognize common themes and most importantly the entire group must be willing and able to work together in an effort to achieve common goals.

All egos MUST be set aside in order to become one.

This may sound easy enough, but in practice it is very difficult to get a group of strong- minded, intellectual people to really pull this off, but if you can you have the recipe for innovation.

I’m very proud to say that myself and my TEAM had the grand finale of a phase of this Renaissance Exercise innovation that some of us have been working on together intensively for the last 2 to 5 years and some of us have been working on independently for the last 12 to 30 years!!

Now before I share anymore details about my trip to Orlando, Fl last week and my meetings with 6 of the most brilliant minds in the field I would first like to summarize the recurring patterns that lead up to ANY great innovation. This will satisfy my interest in discussing the “why” these things happen, you gotta love PROCESS.

What leads to innovation?

 1.  A gradual precognition (a hunch)- important ideas take a LONG time to develop.  Rarely does a great innovation just happen like a lightning bolt. I’ve talked to many successful entrepreneurs, they are all 20 year/overnight successes.

2.  In industry good ideas take 10 or 20 years before they are really useful to the masses.

3.  Good ideas come from a number of “collisions” and failures of many other hunches and often from multiple different people.

4.  Rarely does any one person have ALL of the components to a truly great innovation.

5.  Ideas and projects need time to incubate and great innovations spend MANY years in an incomplete form before advancing.

6.  Great innovation requires multiple perspectives from different minds.

7.  There should be a system to allow these hunches and ideas to come together in order to grow and become bigger and better.

8.  There must be a meeting place. Phones, computers and forums can facilitate and speed up, but nothing beats live energy and the hands on experience of physically doing, seeing and sharing with others.

9.  The ability to get the right kind of people together and connect to form something brand new is the engine for creativity.

10.  Finding the right people… each one with the missing piece is the difference between a good idea that should have been and a great innovation that changes the way people look at something forever.  

Click below for a great video on INNOVATION!

This video does an excellent job of summarizing what I’ve seen with the Renaissance Exercise movement thus far.

It also exemplifies why the RenEx Team has spent thousands of hours together on the phone and via email in the last few years and this past week is a prime example of what can be produced when we physically get together.

Last week we all met up in Orlando to put the finishing touches on the RenEx Exercise Equipment line.

It was most exciting to see and try out a physical manifestation of ideas that we’ve each had a hand in all come to life and to end up with a product that represents  how powerful the sum of our collective powers have become.

I hope the new technology can help some of the naysayers to see with their eyes that no this isn’t just SuperSlow and NO you haven’t tried it already.  Now of course the equipment isn’t even close to half of the equation, but it sure was cool to see and feel a representation of such hard work.

I’m looking forward to sharing still photos; video and we might even release some audio of presentations by the members.

Now   this wasn’t all fun and games most of the week was spent in our factory that can easily reach 100 degrees (No A/C) and we worked each day from as early as 4am until as late as 11pm.

Anyone who knows Ken Hutchins knows that this is common place so when in Rome we did as Romans….not to mention that the shear excitement pushed us along with little to no sleep.    

I’d like to give special thanks to our model Anastasia. Her endurance was remarkable and I’m not sure any other model could will themselves through such a production.

I hope this post on innovation has sparked some thoughts, comments and even perhaps your own personal experiences or stories.

If so, please post them below in the comments section.

We would love to hear your thoughts on innovation!

P.S. Stay tuned! We shot a ton of pics, audio and video this past weekend (of our innovation session) that we will be sharing with you very soon.

Tagged as: Innovation, Ken Hutchins, Renaissance Exercise