COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION: ESSENTIAL FOUNDATION OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY - Collaborative Computational Technologies for Biomedical Research - page 22

2.2.2 Power of Differentials

The value of multidisciplinary teams is founded on the basic principle that all
innovation comes from differentials in thinking: If two people think alike,
there is no innovation. Innovation occurs when someone decides to think
differently—by asking new questions, challenging the status quo, having a
vision that there must be a new/better way, or being dissatisfi ed with the results
produced by current solutions.
Harnessing the multidisciplinary power of the differential thinking should
be one of the strategic methodologies to generate breakthrough innovation
(Table 2.1). Being creative requires divergent thinking — generating many
unique ideas—and then innovation demands convergent thinking — combining
those ideas into the best result.
Collaboration triggers the sparks between people that brings out their
natural (often suppressed) creativity and enables their differentials in thinking
to generate a massive stream of ideas; and then the focus becomes converging,
integrating, and aligning those ideas into real innovations. People who inno-
vate collaboratively (as opposed to independently) have a greater chance of
learning from others and building the networks that actually enable innova-
tion to become implemented.
For example, one of the best known breakthroughs in biomedicine was the
joint insight by Watson and Crick regarding the double-helix structure of
DNA. Crick had migrated from the fi eld of physics, and Watson was just a
young graduate student. They both came from a place of “not already knowing,”
an openness to new ideas, rather than thinking of themselves as “experts” in
the biomedical profession. They never conducted any experiments, instead
looking at the data of others, and interpreted the data from a fresh perspective.
Watson and Crick meticulously integrated the work of others in different
fi elds—such as crystallography—and saw unique patterns in the data that
enabled them to envision the double helix.
Making collaboration the central organizing principle for all research, dis-
covery, development, commercialization, and proliferation for innovative new
products, services, and business models will likely result in a far higher chance
of producing a breakthrough in thinking and results.

TABLE 2.1 Einstein ' s Rules for Creating Breakthroughs
1. We cannot solve the problems of today with the same level of thinking that
created the problem.
2. Creativity is more important than knowledge.
3. From discord make harmony, from chaos seek order.
4. In the middle of diffi culty lies opportunity.
5. There is a simplicity of design behind every level and layer of complexity (if we
search for it).