Precedents Thinking

Innovation can be daunting. Creating something entirely new feels intimidating. But that feeling misses a vital truth: Most great innovations are creative combinations of existing ideas. Examples abound.

Ford, Hastings, and Buffett achieved breakthroughs by creatively combining prior innovations. According to the author their experience of helping student-entrepreneurs launch startups and CEOs innovate their strategies, they have perfected a method of unlocking this powerful source of innovation: precedents thinking. It involves four steps.

1. Find a novel framing of the problem. Most great innovations start with a novel framing. For example, Henry Ford began not with the conventional How can I make more money selling cars? but with How can I make cars more affordable for everyone? That made him unique among his peers, all of whom were more interested in how to make better cars for the 5% of the population that could already afford them.  A few techniques can help ensure that your framing is as novel as possible. The first is to strive to keep it neutral. That means being agnostic about the solution to the problem.   Another technique is to keep asking Why?  A third technique is allowing the framing to evolve—something that corporate leaders and student entrepreneurs who conceive viable breakthroughs often accomplish.
2. Search both near and far for precedents. When applying precedents thinking, inspiration from both within your domain and outside it is essential.  According to the author in their experience, the best way to find pertinent out-of-domain innovations is to “disassociate” the elements of your problem such that they are no longer specific to your domain, and to move from asking How? to asking Who?  Another powerful way to find the best precedents is to create an innovation team whose members have as much work-life diversity as possible. Someone who has had a variety of experiences is far more likely to bring inspiration from outside the problem domain.  Engaging with large language models can accelerate a productive search for precedents, particularly out-of-domain ones.
3. Foster combinatory play. Combinatory play resulted in innovations that might never have happened otherwise. Indeed, the first two steps of precedents thinking—frame and search—are really just (necessary) preparation for the breakthroughs that come from creative combinations.  Combinatory play is best done first individually and then in groups.  People need private time and space for their minds to make the unexpected connections between precedents that lead to “aha!” moments.  However, combinatory play in groups is also essential to getting the best results from precedents thinking. Individuals can bring something to the table that sparks a great idea from someone else.  There are two keys to fostering combinatory play in groups. The first is to be fully aligned on the challenge you are trying to solve.  The second key is for every team member to fully internalize every precedent before the team comes together.
4. Use precedents thinking to guide execution, too. Precedents thinking is not just for generating big ideas; it’s for bringing them to fruition. Studying relevant precedents in depth and learning from their key implementation tactics can make the difference between success and failure.