MISTAKE

Spencer Silver, a scientist at 3M, stumbled upon glue that did not stick. Most would have considered this to be a mistake, but Silver thought otherwise. He decided to pursue its commercial application. Upon being asked if he had made a mistake, Spencer responded that he had stumbled upon a ‘solution looking for a problem’.

Indeed, it is to 3M's credit that it allowed Silver to carry this strange glue forward. The celebrated Post-it Note pads were invented on the idea of glue that does not stick, and they turned out to be the 3M Corporation's most successful product. This illustrates that quite often we stumble on creative solutions much before we are confronted by yet to come problems.

In today's fiercely competitive world, innovation, though crucial for personal and organic growth, is not easy to sustain. Difficulties arise because most persons and organizations tend to view deviations from institutionalized practices as mistakes that can only detract from overall organizational performance. Yet, to sustain innovation, some deviation is definitely required.

Creativity is all about visioning questions before they get asked. We must see the potential in what may seem to be a mistake. We must develop our tolerance for ambiguity, by seeing the unseen dimensions to a situation that seems a dead-end, but is in reality just a cul-de-sac. We need to consider whether, what appears to be a mistake, is a ‘solution looking for a problem’

Mistakes may be ahead of time solutions

Let’s discover a use to their applications!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.