Tinkering Isn’t A Waste Of Time If You Do It This Way

For years, tinkering got a bad rap. Tinkerers would spend hours trying to fix broken objects with little to show for their efforts.

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But today’s tinkerers breed innovation. They harness creativity to find ways to solve old problems.

“When I think of tinkering, it’s improving how work is done and improving outcomes,” said Mark Graban, author of “The Mistakes That Make Us.”

Freely experimenting with ways to enhance a product or service is one type of tinkering. You can also tinker with ideas to make them more practical and viable.

“We often think of tinkering in a garage with tools,” said Alan Castel, author of “Better With Age.” “But our mind is the most powerful tool we have.”

Maximize the value of tinkering so that you and your team innovate more boldly. How do you apply the best practices of tinkering to your advantage?

Pose Problems

Spur your team to ponder vexing problems and seek solutions. Ideally, you motivate everyone to think about these issues outside of work as well.

“We can do some of our best tinkering during our off-task time,” said Castel, also a professor of psychology at University of California, Los Angeles. Pose a provocative problem — or puzzling riddle — and invite employees to grapple with it over the weekend. Then reconvene and share findings.

Know Your Priorities

Tinkerers are often passionate inventors. But their passion can lead them astray if they ignore business needs and pressing priorities.

“You can get into trouble with tinkering if you focus on what you fall in love with,” said Graban, a Cincinnati-based leadership consultant. It’s important to set parameters so that experimentation breeds bottom-line breakthroughs that advance organizational objectives.

Celebrate Incremental Gains

Tinkering rarely results in instant hits. Usually, participants inch forward by making incremental progress.

“Don’t fixate on why it wasn’t a full 100% success,” Graban said. “Don’t say, ‘You didn’t hit your goal.’ Instead, celebrate when the team makes some progress like a 45% improvement.”

Withhold Judgment

You may fancy yourself as a master tinkerer. But don’t expect others to emulate you. Give your team the space to tinker as they see fit, even if they use methods or run tests that you doubt will work.

Avoid making “should” statements such as, “You should have done it this way” or “You should try using these tools,” Graban says. Such comments come across as criticism and can stifle innovation.

Respect Everyone’s Efforts

Beware of placing higher value on tinkerers with impressive credentials — and discounting the efforts of less heralded contributors. Some of the best advances come from the least likely individuals.

“There’s great value of the untrained amateur with a deep insight,” said Charles Barber, a writer in residence at Wesleyan University. In his book “In The Blood,” Barber tells how Frank Hursey, a mechanical engineer toiling away in his basement, discovered how a simple mineral could help stop life-threatening bleeding.

“If you look at the history of science, outsiders in the wilderness come up with problem-solving ideas,” Barber said. “Be open to untrained amateurs,” and don’t prejudge or dismiss an idea based on its source.

Keep It Simple

Tinkering loses its value if you try to tackle too many complex issues at once. Overambitious experimentation can backfire. It’s better to stick to solving a basic problem, especially if you can summarize it in one sentence.

“Pay attention to the simple ideas,” Barber said. He refers to Hursey, whose discovery led to the founding of QuikClot, as the “Ringo Starr of inventors” because he reduced the task to its essence and riveted his focus on what mattered most.

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