This is the third part of a multi-part series of lessons learned from Inc. Magazine’s GrowCo conference. These lessons have been translated and applied to the interior design industry for relevance.

In interior design, we are hired by our clients to be innovative and creative.  However, are we carrying that ability to innovate and be creative into how we run our businesses?  Furthermore, are we using our gift of visual thinking to represent that innovation?  In a main stage presentation called Fostering Innovation in Turbulent Times, Tom Wujec, Fellow at Autodesk, gave a convincing argument for not only the importance of innovation in general, but also for the special importance of encouraging innovative process creation through sketching.

Tom Wujec

The backbone of every good product or service is innovative teams that augment their creativity, Wujec argues.  How do they augment this creativity?  They make the creativity visible.  In an industry where many of us are primarily visual learners, this becomes of paramount importance.  When thinking about how to innovate and improve any of your business processes, post visuals on a giant bulletin board or use a huge white board to visual where you are going.  Could your manuals or communications be more visual?  Wujec gave a great example of Mattel turning a 60 page manual that shows the flow of money through the company into a 1 page visual that even a 12 year old could understand.  Let’s be honest, who is going to read 60 pages?  Let’s also be honest, who has time to write 60 pages??

Wujec argues that in order to propagate a new idea, whether it be for a large problem within the firm or for a small task, put it on one page and make it visual.  An example of this from Autodesk is below:

Wujec also argues that a linear innovation process doesn’t work anymore.  If you try to innovate linearly, it’s much easier to get stuck and bogged down in one aspect of the process.  When you get stuck, you are much more likely to throw in the towel.  Wujec used this visual to show the innovation process.  Not a coincidence that he shows the innovation process as a drawing.

Again, as an industry of visual people, we have a leg up.  From this point forward, make all of your conceptual ideas visual.  At Gibson Design Management and Gibson Design Group, we are big fans of the giant post-its.  It’s rare that one is not on the wall with a process that we are tossing back and forth.  “Writing on the walls” serves one main purpose: collaboration.  Through putting up what one, two, or three of us are working on, others can and will chime in with ideas.  We are then able to propagate an idea much more easily than a piece of paper that sits on one of our desks.

The $60 million question is: are you taking the time out of your day to actually come together and flush through a process?  Even if you are a sole proprietor, are you setting aside some time to figure out where innovative improvements need to be made?  As designers, I would imagine that many of you sketch to solve design problems.  Why aren’t you sketching to solve business problems?  Give it a try.  The next time you sit down and think about an area of your business that needs improvement, start drawing.

Post note: There is a book by Dan Roam called The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.  I would recommend picking it up if you subscribe to the idea that through drawing we can solve ideas more quickly and clearly.  If you’re not sold yet, you might be swayed by this excerpt from the book:

“When Herb Kelleher was brainstorming about how to beat the traditional hub-and-spoke airlines, he grabbed a bar napkin and a pen.  Three dots to represent Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.  Three arrows to show direct flights.  Problem solved, and the picture made it easy to sell Southwest Airlines to investors and customers.”  – excerpt from The Back of the Napkin

Dan also has a great website that explains many of the theories at BackoftheNapkin.com.