Assumptions are one of the reasons why many ideas are left out and never become real innovative products or services. Avoiding risk and pragmatism are very common answers to new ideas, preventing the creation of disruptive products being incorporated into the market. Very often, this resistance is based on assumptions. As a model of innovation, open innovation allows companies to collaborate with other firms, academia or partners out of their business to incorporate, new perspectives, a fresh view and different ideas, and address new challenges of innovation. It can also give rise to an organizational culture open to disruptive thinking, avoiding pragmatism and assumptions.
Here is a video in which the motivational speaker Andy Cohen puts limits to assumptions. By challenging them it is possible to open the doors to new solutions to challenges that did not exist before, and that is an incredible power, he says. A process that works!
He suggests:
- Blind the accepted as if it were an assumption
- Consider it and suspend believe to start thinking differently
- Challenge assumption to generate new ideas and pose new challenges
