Is 3 Percent Of People The Same As 3 Percent Of Ideas?

Been reading some of innovation expert John Wolpert's work over at his site - The Three Percent.

According to the About Page, the site is "based on the notion that only about three percent of any population is actually innovating - as opposed to inventing, improving…or watching the clock to get home in time for The Simpsons rerun hour".

Sounds like a fair call.

Later on, John goes on to say "Management gurus might tell you that anyone can be an innovator, and we wouldn’t argue with that…but if innovating involves changing the rules of the game, then perhaps it’s a good thing that only a few souls happen to be doing it at any given time."

It's here that we think OneEyeDeer might just be able to change things. You see, while OneEyeDeer is about the full gamut of change (as defined by John); improving, inventing and innovating, our goal is to have the biggest effect on innovation.

So, what if 3% of ideas, as opposed to people, were actually innovative. And what if each of those ideas had multiple people working on them. Would that be different to how things are now?

Our theory is that in the past 1 person = 1 idea = 1 innovation. At OneEyeDeer we're hoping to create a future where 100 people = 1 idea = 1 innovation.

Similar amount of disruption, for now, only more diverse inputs and better outcomes.

Later on the plan is to increase the disruption, but we'll do that gradually - nothing to fear here, John :)

Is 3 percent of people the same as 3 percent of ideas?

When it comes to innovation, we don't think so.


PS: Don't forget our next round of beta-testing kicks off this week. Make sure you sign up to get the link emailed to you