Staying Invention-Ready

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Staying Invention-Ready

October 13, 2008. By Peter Lloyd

The inventors of Breathe Right adhesive strips were much better designers than the designer of the nose. It was George Carlin, if I remember correctly, who observed that the nose, a runny, open orifice is situated right above the mouth.

The nasal cannula retainer, on the other hand, stands heads above the nose, as it were, in inventive elegance.

If I ever get a chance to speak with either of the Ohioans Fred Bruce Kessler or David Michael Berzon, I want to know how they invented these indispensable strips. From which angle did they attack? Were they like Art Fry, inventor of Post-it Notes, who worked in adhesives and chanced upon a use for a not-so-sticky glue?

If they set out to solve the stuffy nose problem, did they go inside first? Consider that they named their product a cannula, which is something you stick into a body cavity with a trocar (pictured at right).

If so, that means they reversed their thinking at some point. But we've all heard of enough purely accidental discoveries not to be surprised if we were to learn that one of the inventors was playing around, sticking tape to his nose for laughs at a party.

Which is why I mentioned Art Fry. I had heard conflicting versions of his invention story before I spoke with him. Like George de Mestral, inventor of velcro, Art had been working on his invention, when he observed the solution in an unrelated frame of reference. Art in church. George after a walk in the woods.

Rather than stepping through a formal innovation process, both chanced upon their Aha!s. They were able to recognize the solution, because the problem was churning around in their heads when the revelation appeared. And because their creative minds were open to solutions from anywhere.

I'm reminded of Louis Pasteur's observation, "Chance favors the prepared mind."

UPDATE: I saw one of the Breathe Right inventors on a TV commercial explain that he initially had approached the "open the nose" problem from the inside, then awoke one morning with the breakthrough approach of working from the outside.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest business problems.

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