Newcomer innovation

Image courtesy of pixabay / geralt

Everyone has experienced being a newcomer - to start something new in a field, where other people have more experience than the newcomer have. I remember when I got my first job, and soon after I was employed, I was invited to a meeting where the topics were important things that I did not have the least knowledge of.
I remember how I sat at that meeting - paralysed with fear of saying something stupid. I'm not sure that if I had said anything, I could have contributed with anything constructive. But I have since realized that people sitting in that situation should be encouraged to say something - because they are in a unique situation as the people who do not know what is not possible.
So I promised myself that in the future when I'm in such situations - either as as the newcomer who knows nothing, or as the one who is the experienced knowledgable guy - I will use the situation. Either by speaking up after having apologized for my ignorance, or by inviting the newcomer to speak her mind, no matter how stupid she may feel. Because in that situation there are no stupid comments or questions - there are only unexpected ideas, and it would be stupid not to benefit from them.
(Translated from Innovation for begyndere, originally published December 25th, 2012)

On the topic of knowing too much

Back in 2012 I read a news story with great interest. It was the story about how a Swedish chemistry professor had help from his ten-year-old son to solve a complicated problem, which he had worked on for eight years with no luck.
As the professor Sven Hovmöller said about the problem and the son in the article: "Linus’s main contribution was coming at it with an absolutely clear mind, being smart and able to put the puzzle together. I sort of knew too many things and when I tried to do it myself, your brain just gets exhausted by all the different things you keep in your head at the same time. With a fresh, empty brain so to speak, you can do something. When solving problems, it is always good to have someone to discuss it with."
I value the story so highly, because it is so closely related to one of my favorite quotes; in the words of Henry Ford:

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can not be done.

Because as Hovmöller's example indicates: who knows, how many of the problems of the world we would be able to solve, if we were better at asking those who do not know what cannot be done.
(Translated from Noget om at vide for meget, originally published October 3rd, 2012)