Monday 6 April 2009

Innovation and Iterations

Innovations often requires iterations. This picture shows an iteration taking the Wright brother forward to succesful flight in 1903. Picture taken October 1900 of a wrecked glider.



This iteration did not stop them. They did not give up. They continued to innovate, work and iterate. Of course this wreck could be seen as a failure at the time it crashed. But only three years later it was rather a necessary iteration to achieve heavier-than-air flights.

So, do not give up if you wreck your glider. Keep pushing and your innovation might take off. Learn from the iterations. If you succeed all "failures" along the way will be seen as iterations, but if you stop at first failure you will end the journey with, yes, a failure.

Another stubborn person was Edison that together with his team worked his way through lots of iterations to come up with a working light bulb.

Innovation requires stubborness and passion. And a will to separate iteration from failure.

(Note 1. The Wright brothers were possibly not the first ones with flying machines. But they were stubborn and - if not first - at least among the first.)

(Note 2. Been thinking about "iteration" instead of "failure" a while. Think it was http://www.twitter.com/jamestodhunter that got me started thinking some week(s) ago)

1 comment:

  1. I see iteration as an approach to architecture that allows quick reaction and ongoing adjustments so that we can react to failures and learn from successes. Each iteration gives us an opportunity to incorporate recent lessons from the past into the immediate plans for the future.
    - Roger(Twitter: @RSessions)

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