Innovation Explained through Legos
Building on a previous example.
I recently used Legos to describe the importance of Diversity in innovation. I actually really like that metaphor, so I wanted to explore it a bit further.
The current state is a pile of Legos. There might be some structure. Or a lot of structure. Or no structure. But there is a problem. Any structure limits the future possibilities. It locks some possibilities out completely.
So we need to start by breaking down all of the Legos into the individual pieces. This is the hardest part of the metaphor. True innovation requires you to break something down into its component parts. That is the only way to understand the full possibility of a given system. So what are the individual Legos?
They are thoughts. They are ideas. They are experiences. They are everything in our lives that brought us to now. And we need to break that all down to understand what Legos we are made of. This can be incredibly traumatic depending on the person. So in that case, assume some of your Legos got glued together. Those parts you can leave built up without breaking down until you are ready and have the appropriate glue remover.
So once we understand what we are made of, we can see what possibilities lie ahead of us. This is where things get pretty cool. Everyone we talk to, everyone we share experiences with, everything we learn, they all add Legos to our piles. So our possibilities grow.
What does this mean? I think it shows something cool. When we can fully be ourselves, fully understand ourselves, and be fully open with others, our piles of Legos start growing exponentially. That to me is exciting. It gives me hope for what is possible in the future. I recently broke myself down to individual pieces, and ended up building a considerably different present for myself.
