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Fight your brain: Innovate!
Aurelien Beraud
Agile Coach – MYOB
[email protected] @aurelienberaud
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What stops us from
innovating?
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Do we lack
bright ideas?
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Who invented the light bulb?
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Was it Edison?
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A bit of history
• 1802: Humphry Davy demonstrates an incandescent light
• 1840: Warren de la Rue introduces the vacuum bulb
• 1847: Edison is born
• 1860: Joseph Swan creates a working light bulb prototype
• 1878: Edison starts to work on the light bulb
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Start with a goal!
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“Most of my ideas belonged to other people who never bothered
to develop them.”
- Thomas A. Edison -
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Good News:
Ideas are everywhere,
so you do not need to be creative to innovate!
Bad News:
Innovation is hard work!
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You gotta catch
‘em all!
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So you now have many ideas.
Which ones are you going to try out?
Is that a rational choice?
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Let's peek into our brains!
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No content
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17 * 240 = ?
4080
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• Fast
• Low effort
System 1 System 2
• Controlled
• Conscious
• Rule based
• Abstract
• Automatic
• Non-conscious
• Associative
• Contextualized
• Slow
• High effort
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2-System Theory
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A cognitive bias is a systematic error of judgement.
They occur because of built-in mechanisms.
We are all affected by these biases.
No matter our age, gender, origin or education.
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With which set of letters can you construct a larger number
of words (in English)?
The second one, yes. But how did you come up with that
solution?
1. XUZONLCJM
2. TAPCERHOB
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You most likely used one of these two heuristics:
However, did you notice this?
• Availability
• Substitution
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“We are not thinking machines that feel; rather, we are feeling
machines that think.”
- Antonio Damasio -
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Have you ever struggled with your own idea?
And thought that it was a bad idea?
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Mere Exposure Effect
The more we are familiar with something, the more we like it.
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The Mere Exposure Effect is an instance of the
Availability Heuristic.
Something new is potentially dangerous.
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Sure the Mere Exposure Effect will work against you because
others are affected by it.
But never forget that the first person you have to convince is you.
And you too, are affected by the Mere Exposure Effect.
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Believe in your ideas!
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So, be passionate; however, beware of the ...
Sunk Cost Fallacy
Tendency to take a decision based on previous costs or time invested.
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Imagine you inadvertently booked two ski trips for the same week-end.
Many people will still choose to go to the first one.
1. The first costs $400
2. The second costs $200
You are quite convinced that you will enjoy the second one much more.
Which one do you go to?
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Be ready to pivot!
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So far is anything surprising in this talk or does it confirm
what you already knew?
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Confirmation Bias
We tend to favor and search for ideas and information that
validates our existing beliefs.
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Let’s play a small game
Here are 3 series of numbers:
• 2, 4, 6
• 10, 12, 14
• 22, 24, 26
These 3 series are all following a rule that I have selected.
To find my rule, give me some other series of numbers and I
will tell you if they match my rule or not.
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Have you guessed my rule?
Have you ever tried to disprove your belief?
The rule was any three numbers in ascending order.
You had an initial belief formed after seeing my first example.
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Keep an open mind!
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There are actually many more biases out there ...
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So, what is the solution?
Will being aware of all these biases help us?
No! Knowledge of biases is not enough to fight them.
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One way to fight these biases is to actively engage System 2.
However, System 2 is slow and uses a lot of energy.
That means that we need to deliberately allocate more time
for thinking.
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We need to stop doing and
start thinking!
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Edison had another trick to innovate.
And it became its greatest innovation.
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Menlo Park
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My recipe for innovation
• Start with a goal
• Catch some ideas
• Believe in them
• Be ready to pivot
• Keep an open-mind
• Keep thinking!
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And keep experimenting!
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References
Tversky, A.; Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgement under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases.
Science, 185, 4157, 1124-1131
Bechara, A.; Damasio, A.R. (2005). The somatic marker hypothesis: A neural theory of
economic decision. Games and Economic Behavior, 52, 336-372
Zajonc, R.B. (1968). Attitudinal Effects Of Mere Exposure. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology Monograph Supplement, 9, 2, 1-27.
Arkes, H.; Blumer, C. (1985). The Psychology of Sunk Cost. Organizational Behavior
and Human Decision Process, 35, 124-140
Lord, C.G.; Ross, L.; Lepper, M.R. (1979). Biased Assimilation and Attitude
Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 11, 2098-2109