Four Steps to Innovation

“... the vast majority of inventions, novel concepts, and new ideas were not imagined by lone,
isolated geniuses. For example, Thomas Edison led a fourteen-man team of scientists, chemists,
and engineers that generated over 1,000 patents for inventions, including the telephone, light
bulb, and telegraph...”

Four Steps to Innovation
Lessons Learned from the Intelligence Community

By Stephen Pick

I am an organizational psychologist working with the intelligence community (IC)
and teaching critical thinking to intelligence analysts. Many of my students
believe that the concepts of critical thinking and innovative thinking are unrelated.
Research shows the opposite—that critical
thinking and innovative thinking are closely
interrelated. Many students also think that
innovation is something dot.com companies, but not large bureaucracies, can do.
This article presents a four-phase
model of innovation that professionals
inside or outside the intelligence community can employ at their workplaces without
a budget, supervisory authority, or compromising security requirements. Applying
innovation concepts and techniques will
lead to more thorough, effective analysis
and decision making.
A Structure for Innovation

Creations happen when regular,
thoughtful people work with other regular, thoughtful people and combine ideas
in original ways. In studying how these
creations arise, researchers and practitioners have discovered some “method to
the madness.” There is actually a systematic practice to innovation that deals with
methodologies, work practices, culture,
and infrastructure (Drucker, 2002). That
is welcome news because it means that
innovation is possible at any level in an
organization.
Modified from existing models, this
four-phase iterative model of innovation
brings structure to what many regard as a
mysterious process (Hargadon & Sutton,
2000; Morris, 2007). The four phases
(forming the acronym G.I.F.T.) are as
follows:
»» Generate ideas
»» Imagine new uses for existing ideas
»» Frame non-industry ideas to your field
»» Test ideas

A popular, romanticized image exists of a
solitary novelist, inventor, or screenwriter
working in the seclusion of a cottage
Innovation is an evolving, iterative process.
nestled in a bucolic setting. However, the
Although we can break the process down
vast majority of inventions,
into four phases, it is diffinovel concepts, and new
cult to pinpoint exactly where
DEFINITION OF
ideas were not imagined by
an idea begins. In truth,
INNOVATION
lone, isolated geniuses. For
that may not be necessary.
Innovation can be
example, Thomas Edison
Once an idea is generated
defined as “…the
led a fourteen-man team
or imagined, a transformainitiation, adoption,
of scientists, chemists, and
tion happens when it is
and implementation of
engineers that generated over
framed for use in your field.
new ideas or activity
1,000 patents for inventions,
To complete an initial cycle,
in an organizational
including the telephone, light
the idea or concept needs
setting” (Pierce,
Delbecq, 1977, p.28).
bulb, and telegraph (Edison
to be tested. Even the most
website).
brilliant idea is of limited

Four Steps to Innovation: Lessons Learned from the Intelligence Community

37

value if it is not tested (Morris, 2006).
Once testing occurs, a process of refining
and adapting begins—and the idea cycles
back through imagination, framing, and
generation.

FOUR-PHASE G.I.F.T. MODEL
FOR INNOVATION

These examples demonstrate how novices
(Jane Goodall and IDEO’s team), as well as
experts in other fields (Prater), can hold an
advantage over seasoned veterans in thinking about an idea in a novel way simply
because they have not “seen it all before.”
Dr. Robert Sutton, a Stanford professor who writes and teaches about innovation, advises, “The rule of thumb is that if
you know a lot about a subject, seek advice
from people who are naïve, either because
they lack bias or because they are experts
with biases that are drastically different
from people in your industry or company”
(Sutton, 2002, January-February, p.12).
Second, as hard as it sounds, ask people
with whom you disagree to read and critique your work. We usually dislike people
who don’t share our ideas. Seek out people
who don’t share your ideas and you will
get new ideas (Heuer, 1999).

Phase 1:
Generate Multiple, Fresh Ideas
Numerous theories speculate about what
makes people and organizations innovative leaders in their fields. One concept
nearly every researcher and practitioner
studying innovation agrees on is the need
for ideas—lots of ideas (LaBarre, 2002).
In fact, the more ideas, the greater the
chances for innovation. Dr. Linus Pauling,
Nobel prize winner in both chemistry and
peace, said, “The best way to have a good
idea is to have a lot of ideas” (Johansson,
2006, p.103).
If you want fresh ideas, talk to people
who are not experts in your field. Because
of their “ignorance” in a particular field,
novices and colleagues in other fields
are less likely to make assumptions and
dismiss ideas as too far-fetched (Sutton,
2002, January-February). W. Edwards
Deming, the quality control and process guru, wrote, “Competent people,
doing their best on jobs, know all there
is to know about their work except how
to improve it. Knowledge necessary for
improvement comes from outside”
(2000, p.2).
Three examples illustrate how forward-thinking leaders and organizations
recruited teams of unlikely candidates to
solve problems:
»» Jane Goodall, the pioneering chimpanzee researcher, was hired to conduct
two years of intensive observations in
African jungles, not despite her lack
of scientific training but because of
her lack of university training (Sutton,
2001). Goodall wrote in her book, In
the Shadow of Man, that her boss, Louis
Leakey, thought that university training would be unnecessary, potentially
even a drawback because he “…wanted
someone with a mind uncluttered and
unbiased by theory who would make
the study for no other reason than a
real desire for knowledge” (1988, p.6).

38

OD PRACTITIONER Vol. 41 No. 3 2009

explore ideas about sandals (Nussbaum,
2004).

Phase 2:
Imagine New Uses for Existing Ideas

Later in her career, Goodall agreed with
Leakey’s theory, noting that had she
known existing theories she “would
not have been able to observe and
explain so many new chimp behaviors”
(1988, p.6).
»» Geoffey Ballard, CEO of Ballard Power,
hired Keith Prater to work on fuel cell
batteries. A chemistry professor, Prater
warned Ballard that he had no experience working with batteries. Ballard did
not care. “I don’t want someone who
knows batteries. They know what won’t
work. I want someone who is bright
and creative and willing to try things
that others might not try. That’s where
the breakthroughs come from”
(Koppel, 1999, p.15). Prater’s work
helped adapt fuel cell technology to
buses and cars.
»» IDEO, a California-based design firm,
interviewed an artist, a bodybuilder,
a podiatrist, and a shoe fetishist to

While revolutionary inventions do occur,
they are extremely rare. Innovation instead
deals with small, consistent incremental
changes. Consider that the idea you are
searching for probably already exists; you
just need to find it. The missing link is
imagining a new use for an existing idea.
While the four GIFT phases are interconnected, Phase 2 (Imagine new uses for
existing ideas) and Phase 3 (Frame nonindustry ideas for your field) intersect.
Thinking about how an existing idea can
be used in a novel way is an important
prerequisite but is not necessarily innovative. However, combining these concepts
of imagining new uses for existing ideas
and combining them for your field can lead
to significant innovations. Albert Einstein
referred to innovation as “combinatorial
play,” which he defined as making associations between rarely combined concepts to
enhance a solution’s originality (Amabile,
2002).
Consider the following examples of the
power of imagining new uses for existing
ideas:

»» Creating a medical product that uses
saline from the electric pump of a
battery-powered squirt gun to clean
wounds (Hargadon & Sutton, 2000).
»» Using a termite mound’s internal air
flow design of maintaining a constant
temperature to protect the queen’s eggs
as the model for an African office building’s ventilation system, which does
not require air conditioning and which
saves over 90 percent of energy costs
(Johnston, date unknown).
»» Sculpting a bullet-train’s aerodynamic
design based on how a shark’s head
disperses water with minimal drag
(Johansson, 2006).
»» Explaining the evolution of economists’
and stock market analysts’ financial
strategies by using modeling equations that were mathematically similar
to those biologists use to understand
predator-prey and symbiotic systems
(Johansson, 2006).
»» Replicating the brick-layered designs of
abalone and conch shells to build stronger tank armor bodies (Spotts, 1997).
»» Al-Qaeda, an innovative organization, imagined a low-cost way to apply
wartime technology against soldiers to
civilians during peace time.

Phase 3:
Frame Non-Industry Ideas to your Field

History is replete with examples of how
innovative entrepreneurs brought ideas,
concepts, inventions, news, successes, and
failures from one field to another. Henry
Miller said,
WORDS TO
“All geniuses
REMEMBER
are leeches”
“You can’t quantify
(Miller, 1964,
the value of letting
p.22). Robert
people’s minds
Fulton did
run wild”
not invent the
(Kelley, 2001, p.63)
steam engine;
steam technology had been invented 75 years earlier and
was used in coal mines. Similarly, Henry
Ford did not invent the assembly line; he
studied Chicago’s meat packing plants
where workers stood in one place and
products (cows and pigs) moved past them
and were disassembled. Fulton and Ford’s
innovative contributions were imagining
how existing technologies and ideas could
be adapted to new fields.
Below are two examples of how organizations imagined new uses for existing
ideas and made them fit their field.
»» The Washington Post reported that the
Department of Homeland Security’s
Analytic Red Cell office convened
Everyone has heard of brainstorming and
meetings with futurists, philosophers,
most of us have done it. IDEO colleagues
software programmers, musicians, and
treat brainstorming as an art form. IDEO
a fiction writer for day-long exercises
consultants strive to generate 100 ideas in a
to examine critical infrastructure
typical brainstorming session (Kelly, 2001).
vulnerabilities for natural or manNext time you are in a brainstorming sesmade disasters and terrorist attacks.
sion, don’t give
IDEO’S
Seemingly disparate group members
up after the
BRAINSTORMING
were asked questions such as: “If you
initial flurry of
RULES
were a terrorist, how would you target
ideas. Sit with
1. efer judgment
D
the G-8 economic summit?” and “Why
the silence and
2. ncourage wild
E
haven’t terrorists hit the United States
be confident
ideas
since Sept. 11, 2001?” The goal was to
that more ideas
3. uild on the ideas
B
“provoke thought and stimulate discuswill bubble up.
of others
sion.” Their results were compared
While there is
4. tay focused on the
S
with those of other intelligence profesalways the postopic
5. ne conversation
O
sionals and disseminated throughout
sibility that no
at a time
the IC (Mintz, 2004, A.27).
other ideas will
6. e visual
B
»» The FBI recruited middle-school girls
come to mind,
7. o for quantity
G
to teach agents how to believably comit is more likely
municate like teenagers to catch interthat brainstormnet child pornographers and pedophiles
ing groups cut short their idea generation
(Phuong, 2003).
process.

Author George J. Seidel sums up the
intersection between Phases 2 and 3: “The
ability to relate and to connect, sometimes
in an odd and yet striking fashion, lies at
the very heart of any creative use of the
mind, no matter in what field or discipline”
(Hutchinson, date unknown).
To increase your odds of related and
connecting ideas, you need to broaden
your horizons. Expand your mind by
reading books from outside your field of
expertise. Browse bookstores, magazine
racks, libraries, and best-sellers lists for
topics you might not normally read. Read
sections of the newspaper that you would
otherwise ignore. Listen and read political
commentaries that you don’t agree with.
Study leaders and innovative organizations in all sectors. Find local leaders you
admire (and even those you don’t) and
interview them. People like to talk about
themselves, and you will be surprised at
the caliber of people you may be able to
meet simply by picking up the phone and
asking politely. Find a hobby, learn to play a
musical instrument, audit a course, visit a
museum, do something different, share it
with others, and always ask:
»» How can I use, adapt, modify, conform,
transform, revise, remold, or rework
what I am learning to my work as an
intelligence professional?
Phases 2 and 3 are an idea numbers game.
The more you learn, the greater your interests and diversity of knowledge, and the
greater your chances for generating ideas.
Idea generation will help you imagine
how ideas, concepts, and theories from all
fields can be framed and applied to your
discipline. As Dr. Sutton wrote, “Artistic
geniuses don’t necessarily have a higher
success rate than other creators; they
simply do more—and they do a range of
different things” (LaBarre, 2002, p.69).
Phase 4:
Test and Share Your ideas
Phases 1–3, Generating ideas, Imagining
new uses for existing ideas, and Framing
non-industry ideas to your field are necessary prerequisites for Phase 4, Testing
ideas. This is the rubber-meets-the-road


39

previously exist in its current form—is
your prototype will need to be refined,
a fluid, not formulaic process. There is
usually many times. Take the risk to allow
no exact recipe or single path to achievothers to see your work. This is easier said
ing innovation. Often, as one researcher
than done, especially with a fragile, new
designs and tests a theory, another
idea. Still, the only way a new concept
researcher designs a study or finds eviwill survive is by others seeing, reviewdence to prove the exact opposite.
ing, and poking holes in it, hopefully with
If you agree with
the goal of improving
APPLICATION
the principles outit. Richards Heuer, a
lined in this article,
45-year CIA veteran,
In addition to course lectures,
study the references
wrote about the usefulstudents in the critical thinking
class work in groups and practice
section and track
ness of a Directorate
applying these four concepts as
down original sources,
of Intelligence peer
they analyze realistic, but fictitious,
experiment, adapt
review process that
intelligence traffic. Their task is
some of the concepts,
used reviewers from
to read a wide-range of traffic and
and give the article
branches outside of
develop hypotheses about the
to colleagues to get
where a document
different potential threats to the
their comments. If
was produced (Heuer,
homeland. The student groups
you disagree with the
1999).
are given new traffic, that builds
principles outlined,
There can even be
on each previous day. Students
do the same thing.
value in seeking advice
structure their daily brief-outs
In addition, explain
and collaboration from
in two parts. The first part are
their hypotheses about what is
why you disagree with
colleagues with whom
developing. In the second part of
the concepts, digging
you disagree. After
the brief-out, students explain how
deeper than “because
all, a main reason you
they applied each of the four GIFT
this is how we do it.”
disagree with someone
phases to their work.
If these ideas do not
is likely the different
work for you, think of
ways you each think.
others. Being innovaWhile seeking out your
tive is a skill, not an innate trait. The more
less-than-favorite colleagues for help may
Prototyping starts by sketching an idea in
you practice, the more innovative you
seem like a sure recipe for conflict, many
your notebook. The discipline of writwill become. Everyone has the potential,
respected innovators agree that conflict
ing ideas down keeps them alive. Carry a
even the responsibility, to be innovative
around a product (not personal attacks)
notebook with you and leave one by your
(Kirkpatrick Rezvani, 2008). The stakes
increases the value of your end result—a
bed stand. Your sketches do not need to
are simply too high not to be.
more innovative idea, solution, or concept
be complex. IDEO CEO David Kelley used
may develop (Sutton, 2002, Novemberto give his Stanford University students
References
December). The potential results from
cocktail napkins with the assignment to
working with colleagues who hold differwrite their “big ideas” on them (Kelley,
Amabile, T. A., Constance N. H., Kramer,
ent viewpoints can create a better, stron2001, p.181). Of course, intelligence analyS. J. (2002, August). Creativity under
ger, more innovative idea and product
sis is complicated and cocktail napkins,
the gun. Harvard Business Review, 52-61.
(Eisenhardt, Kahwajy Bourgeois III,
even with all the squares unfolded, will
Deming, W. E. (2002). The new econom1997).
ultimately be inadequate to capture the
ics for industry, government, education
complexity of many issues.
(2nd ed.). MA: MIT Press, Center for
Conclusion
This reinforces the need to
CONSIDER THIS
Advanced Educational Services.
test your idea quickly and
After you sketch out
Drucker, P. (2002, August). The discipline
The four-phase GIFT model
inexpensively. The more
ideas, let your mind
of innovation. Harvard Business Review,
is a “start where you are–use
complex a project or an
mull them over. It may
95-103.
what you have guide” to
idea, the greater the need to
be helpful to forget
Edison’s patent information. Retrieved
about a specific idea
promote conversation (Wye,
prototype it. “Prototyping is
for awhile and come
January 24, 2008 from http://edison.
2004). These concepts are
a way of making progress
back to it. Give ideas
rutgers.edu/.
suggestions, ideas to be
when the challenges seem
time to incubate
Eisenhardt, K. M., Kahwajy, J. L.
used, modified, and shared.
insurmountable” (Kelley,
and grow.
Bourgeois III, L.J. (1997, July-August).
Discussing innovation—creat2001, p.106).
How management teams can have a
ing something that did not
Innovation is iterative;
phase where a problem moves closer to a
solution. Without testing, all you have is a
clever idea.
Testing ideas does not need to be an
elaborate or expensive process. Most innovative researchers and practitioners use the
term “rapid prototyping” (Kelley, 2001).
People who create new ideas and novel
processes and products understand that the
first try will rarely, if ever, be the one that
ultimately works or is used. Accordingly,
spend only the bare minimum of resources
testing something that will be modified,
adapted, and improved upon. IDEO has a
proven methodology for rapid prototyping
(Nussbaum, 2004):
»» Create mock-ups for everything, both
products and services
»» Build prototypes quickly and cheaply.
Never waste time on complicated
concepts.
»» Make prototypes that demonstrate a
design idea without initially worrying
about details.
»» Design scenarios showing how a variety
of consumers can use the service in
different ways and how various designs
can meet their individual needs.

40

OD PRACTITIONER Vol. 41 No. 3 2009

good fight. Harvard Business Review,
77-85.
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Stephen Pick, PsyD, is a Senior
OD Consultant for SENSA Solutions in McLean, VA. From 19992004 he worked in the Federal
government. Since 2004, he has
worked in the private sector
as a consultant to Federal
agencies. He can be reached at
s
tephenpick72@hotmail.com.

Phuong, L. (2003, June 4). Girls teach teen
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help catch pedophiles on the internet.
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