Innovation as a Journey - Ask Where do we come from ? What are we ? Where are we going ?

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? is a painting by French artist Paul Gauguin (Image Sourece - Wikipedia)

I like the metaphor of a journey to describe innovation or innovative problem solving. The metaphor that you have in your mind for innovation will strongly influence your thinking and your approach. If you have a unique style of innovating, that arises from the unique metaphor that you use. I was introduced to the world of metaphors and how they influence our thinking and lives by the book "Metaphors that we live by".

If you are planning a journey, then the three most basic things that you would ask will be :

Where do we come from - the starting point of the journey - Here
Where are we going - the ultimate destination - There
What are we - constrained or limited by
What are we - expected to do to go from here to there

In the context of Innovative Problem Solving, the equivalent questions would be

We need to understand the current state (A) clearly.
Visualize the ideal state (B) we would like to be in.
Ask ourselves what is holding us to A - why we are not already there at B.
Then figure out how to overcome the constraints and go from A to B.

On a lighter note,

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