Innovation's ingredients: imagination and trust

Trust is at an all-time low here in America. People have been burned financially and it may take some time to get back to the good old days. Looking at many of the recent financial scandals, including the recent one concerning Madoff, it's worth pulling one of innovation's key ingredients back in from the cold: come on in imagination. Take a seat at the fire.

Remember those silly creativity games that people in workshops play: "Think of as many uses as you can for this toothbrush!" or "How would a heavy metal guitarist solve this problem?" You know: all that "airy fairy" stuff. The stuff that really hurts the brain to even think about. The stuff that adds nothing to the bottom line.

But, you know what, if somebody had actually asked some crazy questions, some people would still have a lot more money in their pockets. It's good to question "conventional wisdom": Maybe that guy in the suit is a fraud? Or maybe, even, all those Ivy League schools don't produce people quite as clever as we are all lead to believe.

You know that many in North Korea believe that Kim Jong-Il is an expert horseman and scored 11 holes-in-one in his first-ever round of golf? Yet North Korea isn't the only country whose people are force-fed fabrication.

Imagination. Trust. Never underestimate their contribution to innovation.

[Link]: Andy Xie, a U.S.-born Chinese economist, talks with Peter Day about the Chinese economy in the BBC's Global Business podcast.

[Link]: The FT comments on Madoff with an article entitled "No questions asked."