Innovation can be bred: Google creativity head: Page 2 of 2
By Edwin Yapp April 8, 2016
“Instead of a ‘yes, but’ attitude, try having a ‘yes, and’ attitude,” suggests Pferdt. “The more you do this, the more you create an optimistic culture that lets ideas grow instead of destroying them.
“An optimistic culture is very helpful to build the ground for letting ideas grow. Instead of trying to find arguments as to why something would not work, we need to accept ideas and try to make them bigger and better.
“As soon as we do that, we will be able to build 10x thinking because the ideas can grow towards something ambitious, bigger than a 10% incremental improvement. This can lead to radical improvements and this is part of our Google innovation thinking,” he adds.
However, Pferdt warns that just having a ‘yes, and’ mindset is no guarantee that any idea can make a positive change. The 10x philosophy is not useful unless the idea focuses on the user.
“There is a need to empathise with what the users’ needs are, and to look at the problem from their point of view,” he says.
“In short, we must put ourselves in their shoes, and only then can better solutions be created,” he adds.
Asked how Google measures this kind of innovation thinking, Pferdt concedes that it would be impossible to see if everyone is practicing positive and 10x thinking, but argues that it is not necessary to do so.
“I’m more interested in the innovator rather the innovation,” he says.
“If you can shape the way people think, develop their mindset and capabilities to innovate, it would be more beneficial because it would be better off in the long term compared with the tracking of individual ideas.
“And that’s my purpose and mission here at Google: To help develop people’s capacities and really develop their mindsets,” he adds.
Edwin Yapp reports from Google’s campus in Mountain View, California, at the invitation of the company. All editorials are independent.
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