How to Make Accidental Innovation a Business Purpose

We explore accidents that have led to business innovation, the resulting lessons, and explore how to drive innovation in the workplace.

Accidents happen all the time, no matter how hard we try to avoid them. But sometimes an accident can be a discovery in disguise. And when it comes to business, accidents can even result in creating new, innovative workplace practices.

Take the story of Post-Its—actually, it’s two stories.

In 1968, Spencer Silver, an engineer at the 3M Corporation, was trying to develop a strong bonding agent to use in building airplanes. Instead, he created a very weak, pressure-sensitive adhesive, which could be peeled off a surface without damaging it. He thought it had possibilities, but management couldn’t see a viable use.

Five years later, a fellow 3M engineer named Art Fry, who sang in a church choir, was trying to figure out how to keep his paper placeholders from slipping out of his hymnal. He knew about Silver’s discovery, and the idea of putting the adhesive on pieces of paper flashed into his mind. Management was still skeptical when Fry suggested it, but they began test-marketing. In 1980 Post-It notes were released all over America and have become one of the top-selling office supplies in the world.

Turning Accidents Into Purpose: Promoting Innovation In The Workplace

The Post-It is only one example of the many accidental inventions we see and use every day. Some, like Post-Its, are the result of an inventor working on one thing and coming up with another. Others came about because a curious mind looked closely at something ordinary and saw brand-new possibilities. Still, others came from outright mistakes, which their creators carefully examined before tossing out. To quote Albert Szent-Gyorgi, a physicist who won the Nobel Prize for synthesizing Vitamin C: “A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.”

So how can we drive an atmosphere of innovation in our own businesses? Obviously, we can’t bank on stumbling across the next Post-It. But there are some things we can do.

3 Ways To Promote Innovation In Your Business

1. Encourage Curiosity

Curiosity leaves the door to discovery wide open. Curiosity is best achieved in open environments, where ideas are shared and pushed. Curiosity can be sparked by breaking routine, whether this be taking a break and going for a walk, or moving to a new space from your desk, or adding any other deviation from your normal day-to-day. Curiosity can also be sparked by asking questions, and then more questions, and especially by digging into the “what ifs.”

2. Reward Innovation And Risk-Taking

And not only reward it, but reward it regardless of the result. An inherent part of taking risks is the risk of failure itself, but this shouldn’t deter companies from trying. The best innovations are always born of risk, of doing something different than what’s already been done which generally means playing it safe. Employees who take risks should be rewarded, no matter the outcome. That’s what the 3M Corporation does today; they know how to drive innovation culture with employee awards, opportunities, and recognition.

3. Examine How You Approach Business Objectives

The book Obliquity, written by economist John Kay, suggests that the best way to achieve complex goals is indirect, through a process that involves taking risks and continually adapting to change. Post-Its and other accidental inventions eventually made a lot of money, but that wasn’t their inventors’ first goal. They happened because minds were prepared to follow an insight wherever it led. By re-aligning your business objectives to promote innovation in the workplace, you open the door for innovation.

Inspiring Examples of Innovative Workplace Practices

Are you feeling inspired yet? Here are four other examples of great, innovative products that were created by accidents in creativity-friendly environments.

Velcro

Invented in 1941 by Swiss engineer George De Mestral, who was inspired by the tiny hooks that made burrs stick to his dog’s fur and his own clothes after a walk in the woods. “Velcro” comes from the French words for “velvet” and “hook.”

Microwave Oven

Invented in 1945 by Percy Lebaron Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon. While working with microwave rays being used in new radar technology, he discovered that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted and saw the possibilities for quicker cooking. The first microwave oven was called the Radar Range and was as big as a refrigerator.

Popsicle

Invented in 1905 by 11-year-old Frank Epperson. Young Frank left a cup of juice with a stick in it on his unheated back porch one cold night and found it frozen solid the next morning. He called it the Epsicle but changed it many years later on the request of his children, who called it “Pop’s sicle.”

Penicillin

Discovered in 1928 by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming, who accidentally left a petri dish containing staphylococci cultures out in his lab for two weeks while he went on vacation. When he returned, a strange mold was growing on the cultures. The mold appeared to be inhibiting the staph’s growth. Some estimates say penicillin has saved 200 million lives.

You cannot plan for an accident, of course, but you can set the conditions under which it’s most likely to occur. Know you have a better idea of how to drive innovation culture, are you ready to bring innovation to your company? At Praxent we’re hugely experienced in innovation – contact us today to see how our experts can help!