If innovation and creativity are what you are looking for, then try some of this

“The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.” -Eric Ries

This is one of my favorite quotes. It inspires my personal and professional development. I’m not looking to “win” so much as I am looking to acquire more awareness to make more informed decisions.

To drive more-informed decisions, learning is the fundamental principle.

To drive more innovation, it requires learning and learning broadly.

(I toss the term “innovation” around loosely. Mainly, I mean a novel change or a new thing introduced in an established system.)

I work in the world of creating valuable digital experiences and one of the top thought leaders in this area, Teresa Torres, is a big proponent of what she calls “continuous discovery”, which is, essentially, an intention to continuously learn.

She says, “We make decisions every day and they all matter. With a continuous mindset, we want to infuse as many of those decisions with customer input as possible. That means we need to reduce the cycle time between customer touchpoints.”

She advocates for structured learning cycles that run indefinitely. During each learning cycle, you are seeking a deeper understanding of a customer problem or you are experimenting to solve a customer problem. At the end of this cycle, you reflect on what worked and whether you are on the right path.

It’s not just Teresa advocating for this type of learning. These learning concepts are ubiquitous everywhere you look — 5-hour rule, Atomic Habits, The Case for Generalists, Sprint, Dual-Track Agile, Ultra-Learning, Intellectual Humility, Always stay a student.

Last year, Austin Kleon wrote an entire book dedicated to this. “Keep Going” advocates we should harness our inner Bill Murray if we want to be creative,

“…I really think the best thing you can do if you want to make art is to pretend you’re starring in your own remake of Groundhog Day…truly prolific artists I know have figured out a daily practice — a repeatable way of working”

What about in a business context?

I agree with Teresa. It is essential to create structured learning cycles for your teams.

Why do structured learning cycles work? I came away with these six principles:

1. It is a designated time for learning that allows for more risk which allows for more innovation
2. It ensures our decisions, which are mostly based on heuristics and error-prone, are more human-centered and reflected upon
3. It facilitates collaborative decision-making which harnesses unique perspectives

The research shows that there’s more capacity, resilience, innovation, and creativity in all of us collectively than in any of us alone. -Steven Kotler

4. It allows for early iteration before wasting time and effort

Research shows that iterating on ideas leads to better solutions. The more we iterate, the easier it gets, and the more value we get out of each iteration. -Teresa Torres (of course, there’s diminishing returns so don’t iterate indefinitely)

5. It gets you closer to first-principles thinking by stepping back w/ a fresh perspective towards the root cause

6. It provides a continuous understanding of the customer in the context of your solutions, which promotes inspiration and creativity

So, tomorrow, try waking up to groundhog day and make an intention to continuously learn.