In her forthcoming book, Midnight Lunch: The 4 Phases of Team Collaboration Success, from Thomas Edison’s Lab, Sarah Miller Caldicott envisions a present-day Edison, transposing his innovation methodology to the digital age. Edison’s collaborative model, writes Caldicott, not only retains its relevance today, but presents a compelling resource for creative success.
Today, most creative minds cite collaboration as vital to the innovative process. Edison’s strategy, in particular, transitions easily to the twenty-first century because he was one of the first champions of the collaborative approach to inventing. He is often credited with the establishment of the first industrial research laboratory, and placed a strong emphasis on teamwork.
We imagined how effective the approaches of other past inventors would be in the digital age. First we considered prolific American inventor Benjamin Franklin, whose numerous inventions and scientific inquiries include the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, and the public lending library. Franklin declined to patent his inventions, instead offering his knowledge in service of the greater good. Given this altruistic attitude, it is unsurprising that he is also credited with popularizing the social innovation of ‘paying it forward,’ stating, “As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.”
Franklin’s commitment to collaborative innovation and his love of inquiry suggest that he’d probably be really into all-night brainstorming sessions, and also that his Twitter would be a must-read.
While Edison and Franklin concentrated their experimental creativity in technological and empirical arenas, others directed their collaborative efforts in pursuit of artistic innovation. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque are two such artists- historians credit the duo as founders of Cubism. Cubism posits the idea of seeing something from many different perspectives simultaneously, a concept which is integral to all creative success, no matter what arena.
Picasso and Braque produced art in dialogue with each other, meeting almost nightly for several years to discuss each other’s work and experimentation. The extent of their collaboration was as revolutionary as their techniques. Discussing their dialogue’s significance, William Rubin, who organized a 1989 MOMA exhibition featuring the work of the two artists under the title “Pioneering Cubism,” commented, “Cubism as we know it was a vision that neither artist could have realized alone.” Today, this sort of artistic collaboration is more widespread, as artists (just like business innovators) realize that diversity of thought and widening of perspectives fosters success. The Internet has created a platform of dialogue and immediacy for artists and innovators to create- just think of digital art communities or YouTube song covers (well, maybe not all of them).
A lesser known inventor is Joseph Friedman, the founder of the flexible drinking straw. An inventor interested in improving everyday products, Friedman struck on his idea while watching his daughter struggle with a conventional straw. After straw manufacturers rebuffed his attempts to sell his patent, Friedman, with help from his family, decided to manufacture the new straws himself. Friedman initially marketed his straws to hospitals, and his bendable straw is a noted example of Universal Design, or Design for All, products which can be used with relative ease by almost everyone. Just as important as the discovery of new things or the implementation of revolutionary ideas is the process of revising inventions for more practicable and all-inclusive use. One imagines a modern-day Friedman engaged in collaborative, accessibility-minded innovation, an approach which, because it anticipates problems, often spells success in the digital age.
The inventors we profiled here, like Thomas Edison, champion collaboration as an important approach to innovation. To hear more about Midnight Lunch, Sarah Miller Caldicott’s step-by-step process of implementing Edison’s collaborative techniques in the digital era, join us for our upcoming Match Books on November 27th.
