Anna Vis
The role of emotion in innovation
Emotions are mentioned a lot in our society and are important in many peoples lives. Many people are influenced by their emotions. So we all have emotions and we often regard them as important, but are they important in every aspect of our life? Many people would agree that in a relationship emotions are. Or in sports people believe emotions are important as well, to have the determination, to be able to keep up even when it is tough.
Not in every aspect of our society people regard emotions as important. In developing new technologies and identifying the risks, emotions are often seen as not important. It is often regarded as something which holds innovation back not as something positive for innovation. For instance with nuclear energy often researchers see emotion as negative because it prevents them of using their technology. But isn’t emotion embedded in the whole cycle of innovation? Is emotion not even the starting point of innovation? Would we have innovations without emotions?
I believe that all these great ideas, like for instance the invention of the light bulb, started with an emotion. This emotion then triggered creativity and we need creativity to innovate. To be creative, our emotions are very important. When we wouldn’t feel anything about anything we wouldn’t be annoyed, sad, happy, curious, angry etcetera and these are all triggers for creativity. Even more negative emotions can trigger innovation. Without these triggers we could look at things but it wouldn’t make sense to innovate because we wouldn’t care.
So emotions are important to start innovation but I think they are important in the whole cycle of innovation. Not only at the starting point but also when developing the idea into a concrete concept emotions are important. When looking at responsible innovation I believe emotions are even more important. For instance our emotions are based on our moral values which are very important when we want to innovate in a responsible way. Emotions help us identifying risks, embed moral values in the innovation and probably emotions are present in many more parts of the innovation cycle than we realise.
The role of emotions in innovation is often underestimated. Emotions are seen as more important in other aspects of our life but not in innovations. This way of thinking is now changing and the role of emotions in especially responsible innovation is more valued. Still many people see emotions as something negative regarding innovation and so much still has to be done to change this and show the importance of emotions in innovations.
Emotions are important for innovation so we should not under-value emotions when innovating but use them and regard them as important in the process, from the start until the end. Our emotions trigger creativity and in that way trigger innovation. So cherish emotions in innovations for without them we wouldn’t have any innovations.