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Creative Destruction

By Peter Lloyd

The term comes to us from Karl Marx by way of Joseph Schumpeter, who argues that innovation in the capitalistic economic cycle results from the accumulation and annihilation of wealth. Call it boom and bust or creative destruction. Free-market advocates, strange Marxist bedfellows, indeed, use the term to justify the temporary pain of things like downsizing to improve the efficiency an organization.

The concept of creative destruction, manifest throughout nature and driven by evolution, shows up before Marx in the work of philosopher Hegel as Aufheben, a term used to describe the struggle between thesis and antithesis. Hegel may have been influenced by the idea of the Hindu god, Shiva, who simultaneously destroys and creates.

In his book, Think Naked, Marco Marsan identifies a form of creative destruction as Blockbuster—a child’s habit of knocking down towers of blocks after painstakingly stacking them up.

All this to point out that creative destruction is not a new idea, but another way to describe, and sometimes to justify, the downside of the creative process. Every invention, innovation, or artistic breakthrough, if it doesn’t immediately destroy its predecessor, at least pushes it aside. Goodbye, Elvis. Hello, Beatles. So long, memo pad. Hey, smart phone. Bye-bye, Pluto!

Destruction, intentional or inevitable, while it results from creation, also stimulates creative progress. Knock down the blocks to get them out of the way, so you can stack a better tower. The idea, what we call progress, is that we all get something better, even though a lot of folks get hurt in the process. So it goes.

Stephen R. Grossman incorporates creative destruction into his problem-solving process, insisting that you cannot solve tough problems until you identify and focus on what you have been doing wrong in your attempt to solve the problem. You must first utterly reject your failed approaches before you can move on in your search for the solution. Many attempts to solve problems fail because solvers cling to some lingering infatuation with a failed approach.

Destroy Creatively
When you’re stuck on a problem, consider what you might destroy. What part of your premise or which assumptions might be incorrect? Which elements of your solution criteria can you eliminate? Do any sacred cows or standard procedures need to be sacrificed? Are you working on the right problem? Do you really have a problem? Would solving a different problem make more sense? Is this the right time to solve the problem? Should somebody else be solving it?

In short, if your current approach isn’t working, clean the slate and start over.

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

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