Читать книгу Driving Eureka! - Doug Hall - Страница 17

Applying system thinking to innovation struggled because of a lack of data. In a factory, it’s easy to gather data from production equipment. Innovation is more difficult because it involves “human systems,” which are classically unstable and unmeasured.

To paraphrase Dr. Deming: Much of what matters about innovation has been immeasurable, unknown, and unknowable. The good news is that, today, innovations and the impact of various innovation methods are measurable.

For more than 30 years, client projects at the Eureka! Ranch have served as a “laboratory” for innovation measurement experiments. PhDs and statisticians have run experiments and analyzed data from thousands of real innovation projects. To develop a significant database from idea to creation to eventual marketplace success took a lot of time and patience. Fortunately, the corporations mentioned previously—and others—were willing to participate in experiments and data collection requests over many years.

Statistical analysis of the database enabled us to identify what separates successful from unsuccessful innovations. The analysis also identified principles and methods for helping everyone think smarter, faster, and more creatively.

Thanks to the support of organizations large and small, we have the world’s first and only complete database from idea creation, week by week through development, and all the way to market. It is this quantitative database that makes it possible to apply system thinking to innovation.