Can a single Tel Aviv incident teach us something about how innovation is created?

Most everyone understands the need for innovation. The reason is simple. Innovation helps us to build a better tomorrow for ourselves. 

I believe most of us realize there is a link between innovation and the future. But where does innovation come from? Do we know?

Personally, I think innovation comes from many sources. Some of these 'sources' might be called, 'triggering events'. These "triggering events" do not have to be dramatic or 'exciting'. Often, they are so mundane they are overlooked.  

For example, consider a not-so-recent incident that involved a horse and a luxury apartment building in Tel Aviv. This particular Tel Aviv incident might seem silly, perhaps even stupid. For this reason, the incident's potential for innovation might easily be overlooked.

Nevertheless, despite appearances, this incident might nonetheless also be a "triggering event" for innovation. 

Watch the video below. It is short, but instructive. The video is less than two minutes long.

Warning: there is no sound to this video; it is footage from a CCTV security camera. 

Here is the video (video comes from here; the news report comes from (here):  

Now, if you wonder what this video has to do with the process of innovation, start with a simple question: would you have been creative enough to think to lead a horse into a luxury high-rise apartment building?

Probably not. You might even think instead that this incident was closer to stupidity than 'creating a situation in order to trigger change'. You might be right.

But then, you might be wrong. You see, silly--or perhaps even stupid--behavior such as you've just seen in this video often lead to innovation. That can happen if you can see beyond the obvious silliness or the stupidity of that situation. 

For example, when this video was sent to the Tel Aviv police department by a building (no doubt irate) resident, the police promptly arrested the two men for, well, something. 

The news outlet which published this "tail" (here), did not cite any apartment-building or horse--or animal--laws as having been broken. In fact, there may have been no law or ordinance on 'the books' to break. Indeed, one of the men arrested told the police he had brought the horse into the building because he had seen no notice in the building that doing so was forbidden. 

Is it possible that this incident could provoke innovations for Tel Aviv's police? Of course that's possible: notices may now begin to appear in luxury apartment buildings to forbid horses--or any other large animal--from being brought onto the premises; and Tel Aviv's city fathers may pass a new 'no large animals in Tel Aviv high-rise' law--if only to give police the right to arrest someone for trying such a stunt--which could injure an animal.

Granted, this incident is small, perhaps even non-consequential. It may offer no proof whatsoever of a 'triggering event for innovation'. The incident may not lead to any real  innovations or changes. It may only show how stupid people can be. 

But then, this horse incident might also serve to remind us of those life situations which, sometimes, have the power to change our lives. For example, could this incident provoke a start-up company--already in the app-development business--to design a new computer application that can sense the presence of large, oddly shaped (and/or heavy) objects (like a horse) as it enters into an elevator? Of course. 

Could such a new computer app be designed to freeze an elevator door into the open position--until an oddly shaped, heavy object has been taken out of that elevator? Of course.

Could such an app make an elevator ride safer? Probably.

Innovation: it could change the laws by which we live. It could change how elevators are designed. It could make life safer.   

Innovation comes in many forms. Often, innovation begins with a "triggering" event. Is this Tel Aviv horse incident one such example?