As good as their articles are, I don't usually think of Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge for Business Leaders as a place to find subjects for this blog, but I found one that I think is worth passing along. Sarah Jane Gilbert conducted this Q & A with Robert Austin, an associate professor in the Technology, Operations and Management unit at HBS, about accidental innovations, the subject of a paper he recently co-wrote. Austin interviewed artists for the paper, querying them about how they more or less "plan" to have "accidents."
Here's a snippet from Austin:
"One artist showed me how one of his important pieces came out of some experiments with unusual tools; he wasn't trying to do a piece of work, he was just trying out the unfamiliar tools, and something interesting happened. Another, a potter, showed me how he would create beautiful pots and then, while they were drying, whack them with a stick. Sometimes they just broke, but other times he'd get an interesting shape that he'd never seen before."
Thanks to the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (the link to this article came from their newsletter) and Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge for Business Leaders.
hi,
this is actually a great method.
if you look in the history of great inventions you will find that they are all egnited by accedents
one of the most is gravity it was discovered by accident
and even the most important discovery of all man kind which is fire was discovered by accident
so planning an accident some times gets good results but be ware because once you may break something more important than a pot....
thanks
Posted by: Terje (the Digital Piano Man) Brooks | February 13, 2008 at 11:53 AM