Innovator's DNA--Post #5--Associating

Five Discovery Skills—#2 Associating: The ability of the brain to take in new information, relate it to something else already in the brain, and create something new is a process called associating. Think about Reese’s Pieces…chocolate associated/combined creatively with peanut butter and a new candy emerges—a billion-dollar product at that. Innovators sometimes practice “forced associating” or combining things that we would never naturally combine. For example, they might imagine (or force) the combination of features in, say, lawnmower and a blender and produce a better mulching mower! The authors cite “the Medici Effect” when, during the Renaissance, the Medici family brought a variety of poets, painters, scientists and architects together to create one of history’s greatest eras of creativity. Creative leaders associate innately, but anyone can create the culture of association when you get intentional about it.