2 - Discovery as a process

Summary

Introduction

At the heart of strategic thinking is the discovery of new ways of solving problems, new ways of organizing information, and new ways of designing products and systems. Therefore the discovery process needs exploration here. Chapter 1 on creativity set the stage for an examination of the discovery process by setting out the approaches and attitudes that make discovery possible. In this chapter the nature of discovery and innovation are explored and myths about them cleared up. The presentation of discovery will be in the context of scientific discovery, because this is the only field in which discoveries can be verified by others. In other contexts, a discovery (e.g., how best to organize a corporation, a new art form) is difficult to verify, and in the end can only be objectively tested by in fact applying scientific methods. The examination of discovery in the context of science, where one can examine the component steps out in the open and verify the analysis of the discovery process, enables one to learn how this process works and then apply this process reliably to other fields of endeavor.

Scientific discovery is one of the most dramatic and exciting products of the human mind and ultimately is the source of our advanced technology. There is tremendous pressure to increase the rate of discovery as more and more key societal issues are seen to contain a scientific component (e.g., AIDS, global climate change, tropical deforestation).