Serendipity, Error & Exaptation - A Synopsis

 

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Serendipity, in many instances, is typically associated with “happy accidents.” In contrast, organizations consider the concepts of innovation and serendipity as siblings, where the latter is the raw material that is instrumental for successful innovation. Organizations like Apple and Tesla have invested tremendously in serendipitous approaches over the years, as seen by their products that have reached the consumer market in the past two decades. Alternatively, in the world of science, even though drug discoveries like penicillin, heparin, X-rays, etc., are considered to have serendipitous origins; their published write-ups seldom tell the story of ‘chance’ factors that led to such discoveries (Fink, Reeves, Palma, & Farr, 2017). The concept of Serendipity originated a thousand years ago when three princes of Serendip (Currently known as Sri Lanka) were sent on a journey by their father to evaluate their suitability to reign his kingdom. The three clever princes were so observant during their travels they described the camel’s physical attributes to its owner, who had lost the animal. They had not seen the animal before but could accurately describe the camel, including it being blind in one eye, missing a tooth, and carrying butter and honey on its back. The seemingly casual observations that humans generally miss turned into something more meaningful when the clever princes could combine their reflections and reasoning to discover new things by sagacity. The Princes of Serendip became the reason for the term ‘Serendipity’ to originate and was used by Horace Walpole in 1754 (Kingdon, 2012).

One of the serendipity innovations are the story of David Green. He co-founded Harvard Bioscience developed and manufactured the world’s first regenerated trachea implant helping a 36-year-old man with inoperable terminal tracheal cancer. The founder David Green in 2004, got interested in the power of stem cells. He had no background in medicine but took the initiative to pour through every scientific journal article, attending conferences related to stem cells and got connected with many experts in the field, and decided to create the machinery to build highly fibrous body parts like the trachea, which saved the 36-year-old patient. He credits his life-saving innovation as a collaborative effort amongst a team of professionals.

Innovation born out of errors or failures or mistakes is more common and is considered good mistakes that are original and yielding products of great value. John Hopps’s life-saving innovation pacemaker is an excellent example. While he was researching hypothermia and being an electrical engineer, he was trying to leverage radio frequency to restore the body temperature and realize that if a heart can stop beating while cooling, it can be restarted again with artificial stimulation leading to the discovery of a pacemaker.

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Exaptation is a concept where previously envisioned design functions are repurposed or re-functionalized for a new design function.  This concept is predominantly encountered in diverse domain areas of science, economics, and architecture. One such innovation that resulted from leveraging the concept of exaptation is the “Millennium Park,” an innovative urban park located in Chicago, and it was completed in 2004. The park's innovative design was said to have emerged unexpectedly from a traditionally envisioned design based on a classic beaux-arts garden. Eventually, it has evolved into an outdoor art museum reflecting the global avant-garde architecture with interactive and contemporary monumental sculptures and landscape designs (Kingdon, 2012).

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Serendipity, happy accidents and exaptation are all concepts that spur innovator’s journey to make a change by never giving up and creating value through hard work, creativity, and perseverance.

References

Fink, T. M. A., Reeves, M., Palma, R., & Farr, R. S. (2017). Serendipity and strategy in rapid innovation. Nature Communications, 8(1), 2002. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02042-w

 

Kingdon, M. (2012). The Science of Serendipity: How to Unlock the Promise of Innovation (1st ed.). Wiley.