Ep. 124 - Say Hi to the Future: Human Ingenuity 101 - with Ken Tencer
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When we think of innovation, we tend to think about new products, new technologies. But Ken Tencer believes that human ingenuity is the spark that will ignite the future.
And Ken really is a passionate student of human ingenuity. He’s currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration focused on human ingenuity and innovation, as well as serving as Curator of “Say Hi to the Future,” which is ‘part podcast, part activation, part ingenuity lab and part quantitative assessment.’ He is also CEO of SpyderWorks, co-author of two books on innovation, and an adjunct professor at the International School of Management.
Ken is dedicated to bringing people together to find solutions for ‘wicked problems’ — and he has some critical insight and experience to share on how we can start doing this in our organizations and our own lives.
Value-Driven Career Development
Business consultant, speaker, curator, adjunct professor, student... Ken has quite the career mashup.
And he says this mashup is a result of following three values through every step of his career, and now in shaping the organizations he works in:
Passion - Ken feels that individuals need to believe in what they’re doing to be successful because it moves people into a mode of seeing what they do as part of a bigger career mashup or journey, as a way to give back.
Savage Curiosity - Always learning and always asking questions, which enables you to explore and continuously grow
Audacity - It’s about going out and having the gumption to believe in yourself and to believe that you might be able to do something a little better or differently than someone else. We’re all uniquely positioned to create value as a result of our experiences, passions, and interests — we just have to figure out how.
It’s ultimately the integration of these three values that have enabled Ken to create that momentum in his personal and professional life.
What Is Human Ingenuity And Why Does It Matter?
Ken defines human ingenuity as “clever, inventive, and original thinking; it is the capacity to make a decision without all of the information.”
Just think back for a second... When was the last time you had to make an important decision and you had all of the information you could possibly want? We almost never have all the information, but we still have to make decisions. And Ken thinks that exercising your ingenuity is the best way to make a good decision in a non-ideal situation.
What It Take To Unleash The Human Ingenuity
Unleashing human ingenuity across the generations, Ken says, will take ‘eyes, ears, and feet’.
Which is to say, we need to go out and actively get a variety of experiences. You only get a certain perspective if you’re staring at a screen all day, if you’re talking to the same people in the same conference room (or Zoom call) every day. Get outside of your organization, get outside of your personal comfort zone, go be a student of life again, and then bring those experiences and knowledge back to your life, your career, your organization.
“If we experience, we will build ourselves,” Ken says. “We will think in new ways, in different ways, and open up opportunities. And those opportunities are what we ultimately bring to market in innovative products or services. It's not just about business, it's about society and social change.
“But we've been so focused, in my opinion, on the process of innovation, rather than the thinking and the people behind innovation or creation... I don't think we've realized or reached our potential.”
And Ken says that one of the biggest obstacles we face in bringing human ingenuity into our organizations is that we fail to listen to the youngest generation. Gen-Z grew up differently and they think differently, and that is a valuable diversity of thought that our organizations need to continue innovating and adapting into the future.
Human Ingenuity Starts With Listening To The Customer & Your People
Human ingenuity isn’t something that exists in a silo — it is a byproduct of community and collaboration.
Whether it’s your peers, what you see in the market, what your customers are saying, what your team is saying, what your kids are saying — it’s the breadth of information that helps you better understand what is going on. Listen to what they’re saying, but more than that, try to understand why they’re saying it.
And our collective capacity for ingenuity is stronger when we’re surrounded by different kinds of people; diversity of people fosters diversity of thought. If you want to find a new solution to a problem, this is where you start. “None of us could possibly have all the answers and it isn’t a linear pathway to innovation,” Ken says.
Definition of Success
His pursuit has changed from success to significance. Ken was originally motivated primarily by money, but now he wants to see the impact he has.
Best Career Advice
“You have to slow the world down. Stop thinking about everything in its entirety. Break it down into 4, 5, 6 points and understand what you are going to address in the next 15 minutes. Otherwise, you're just gonna get so bogged down in the totality and you're not gonna work through it.”
Key Takeaways
To truly see the world of possibilities, we need to think about not just innovation and entrepreneurship but also human ingenuity.
Human ingenuity is simply clever, inventive, original thinking. It is a capacity to make a decision without all of the information so that you have to extrapolate. And human ingenuity can differentiate a business.
Unleashing human ingenuity requires expansive thinking and experiences — and you can only get that when you bring together different people.
Always understand the Why behind the What. You have to interpret what's behind the voice and the words that are being said, you have to understand the reasoning for people's decisions, preferences, attitudes, and behaviors. When you understand the why, you understand what drives people, whether that’s your customers or the people within your organization.
Breadth, not just depth, is valuable when it comes to unleashing human ingenuity. Breadth of knowledge and experience allows you to create connections and ideas that other people simply aren’t capable of because they do not have the same unique career mashup.
Realize that great ideas really do come from anywhere and be open to the diversity of thought across all ages, particularly those younger ones.