Daniel Boorstin, American historian and former Librarian of the U.S. Congress maintained that democracy is strongest when innovations level the availability of goods and services to the broadest spectrum of society. He believed that our society is not united by ideology or religion but by a common experience in everyday living.
Consider an American whose name is unknown to virtually every American. He is generally credited with the invention of the supermarket. He envisioned stores where prices were affordable, parking was available, and selections supported diverse tastes. While food deserts still exist in our society, the supermarket has diffused class differences.
Other Americans, whose names we have forgotten are Edwin Witt, Arthur Altmeyer, and Abraham Epstein. What did they do? They were the architects of our Social Security system. Prior to their work, the poverty rate among senior citizens was more than 50%. Their primary innovation was to establish a concern for the older generation of Americans.
When we board an airplane, we don’t give much thought to the guidance being provided to pilots. At first, airlines had their own systems to control air traffic, but there was no national system. We don’t give much thought to the number of innovations to ensure flight safety. Today we just assume that the private jet carrying a billionaire will receive the same traffic guidance as the jet carrying a middle-class family on vacation.
What might our society look like today without these innovations? Would we still be a democratic society? Or would we revert back to the society that our founders wanted to escape from when they came to this new world?
What are the essential traits for innovation? And how do we build our national capacity for this lifeblood of our democracy?
Some of the essential traits for innovation would embody the following:
- Observation – seeing needs that are not now being addressed.
- Asking Questions – living a life of asking why not when something seems to be wrong.
- Showing Courage – putting forth your ideas when they are likely to be rejected by the status quo protectors.
- Identifying Connections – being able to link together disparate ideas to form something useful.
- Partnering – finding one/two persons who you can work with to explore new ideas.
- Imagining – letting your mind wander away from the present to a future possibility.
The above list is not exhaustive but it provides a sense of the essential traits for innovation. Are these traits genetic or can they be developed? The recent advances in neuroscience suggest that they can be developed. But are they? And who has the responsibility for developing these traits?
These are questions for further exploration. As for now, they are questions that each of us might ask ourselves. How can I become better at innovative thinking?
At a time when our nation seems to have replaced a can-do spirit with one of grievance and blame of others, the pursuit of innovation needs to become one of our nation’s greatest priorities. We need to become forward thinkers and reject those who want to revisit the past.
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“I believe innovation is the most powerful force for change in the world.” – Bill Gates