Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Innovation: Get the job done!




Innovation is just another word for "get the job done".
Eienstein once said that you cannot fix a problem with the same mind set that created it.  Most people don't see this, so their solutions to a problem usually just cause more problems.  If you want to really fix something you need to think "outside the box".
Looking at the world a little differently is all that is required.

I have invented several tools - not because I wanted to, but because we were faced with a problem and no tool to fix it!

My father used to give me a job to do and then walk away.  I was expected to figure it out on my own if possible. Usually my method was not what he expected, but the result worked.  Thanks to my father, I can always find a way to solve my problems.... usually in what other people call "creative ways".

The technicians I worked with at Kennedy Space Center nicknamed me "MacGyver" because of this ability.  I have recieved numerous awards for these innovations, including 2 Space Act Awards, and have been published in the NASA Tech Briefs magazine, and Cutting Tool Engineering Magazine.

This is not because I am smarter - HA- far from it! I know that most of the people I work with are far smarter than I am.  They have just been trained to look at things from a certain point of view.  So why can I do things they can't?  I just learned to look at a "problem" in different ways.  Anyone can do it- it is something you can easily learn.

Creativity isn't something you have to be born with- don't you believe that! The people who are not creative have made themselves that way.  Look at any kid and you will see a creative genius!  Unfortunately, over time that kid is squeezed and molded into a tight little box where imagination is stifled by the "real world".  This is a self limiting belief that you need to change.  Anyone can be a MacGyver if they choose to be!

Check out the link below to a NASA Tech Briefs article.  This is an example of where a problem was turned into a new technology by simply thinking in a different direction! (how do you cut perpendicular to the hole?)

http://www.techbriefs.com/content/view/1384/34/



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