A few years ago I remember sitting at home with a sick kid. Picture it. He’s six years old. Today is PE day at school - Jake’s favorite - but he’s on the couch with a nasty stomach bug. The poor guy is miserable. It’s times like these where you wish you had a magic wand to make illness go away.
Now, imagine a doctor came to you and wanted to inject your first-grader with HIV?
That’s what happened to the parents of little Emma Whitehead. At age 5, Emma was diagnosed with leukemia. For over a year doctors tried a variety of treatments, including two rounds of chemotherapy, but nothing worked. They were running out of options.
That’s when the doctors approached Kari and Tom Whitehead proposing a radical treatment. They wanted to inject Emma with HIV – a virus that normally invades the T-cells in our blood that are responsible for fighting what ails us, rendering us unable to fight infection.
With Emma’s leukemia, the B-cells in her blood (and the T-cells’ crime fighting partner) turn malignant. The doctors needed a way to attack the B-cells to get rid of the disease. The T-cells could do the job, but they needed some help.
So, as a last-ditch effort, they injected a special “disabled” form of HIV. In its new form, the HIV virus still invades the T-cells, but it doesn’t destroy them. Instead, it modifies them, allowing them to produce a special protein that enables them to attach to the B-cells and kill them.
The treatment was a risk. After putting the modified T-cells back into Emma’s body, she became terribly ill and nearly died. But today, she is happily bouncing around her house, leukemia-free. It’s a miracle of innovation that turns conventional wisdom on its head. There’s a lot to be learned from Emma’s story. Here are three key aspects that you can apply the next time you are searching for innovative solutions.
1. Focus on the Positive: Rather than throwing out ideas that will not work, focus on what is good about them, and brainstorm ways to hang on to the positive aspects of the solution while minimizing or eliminating the drawbacks. (HIV isn’t all bad)
2. Defer Judgment: We often judge ideas as they come up. Worse yet, we discuss how we might implement them. This prematurely shuts down the flow of new ideas. Instead, make sure you set aside time to generate ideas without discussing the details or implementation potential. (Human nature has a bias for action and/or disregard for new and unusual ideas. Fight the urge.)
3. Force Connections: Research shows that groups fare better than individuals when it comes to innovation. This is due to the interaction of our unique perspectives. Build upon this by forcing connections between ideas. How can we use our competition to our advantage? Who else has solved a problem like this in a different industry? What can we adapt from nature that might help us?
At LifeWork Associates, we have nearly two decades of experience helping our clients quickly identify the root cause of problems and implement effective solutions. So what are you waiting for? If you would like to explore strategies to get to the bottom of your own mysteries, give us a call. We'd love to help!
*Post shared courtesy of our partners at Action Management Associates. Check them out!