Cross-Domain Thinking Drives Insights & Innovation

Using ChatGPT to Apply Concepts from One Domain for Innovation in Another

What is “Cross-Domain Thinking"?

The history of innovation is replete with examples of how a concept, idea or approach from one domain, applied to a very different arena, leads to an insight that creates a new idea, invention or approach.

The idea behind Velcro came during a walk inventor George De Mestral took with his dog. Noting how cockleburs stuck so stubbornly to his dog and his own clothes, he examined them under a microscope and saw they had many hooks. The hooks were what made the cockleburs doggedly attach to objects. Inspired by this little part of nature, De Mestral invented Velcro as a means of fastening material together.

The idea behind lean startups, which made its appearance in a book of the same name in 2011 by Eric Ries, is built on the principles of rapid experimentation with products and then utilizing customer feedback to continually improve them. The concept was inspired by lean manufacturing, which was developed in Japan in the auto industry in the 1950s.

These are both examples of “cross-domain thinking”. Cross-domain thinking (CDT) is taking a concept from one field and applying that idea in a seemingly disparate domain to create new insights, products, solutions or processes. This approach can be especially useful for solving complex problems or developing innovative solutions that bypass old assumptions or conventional thinking.

Many examples of inventions or insights of cross-domain thinking occur serendipitously, happening as a matter of chance (e.g., Velcro). However, there is no reason this should be the case. CDT can be done systematically and in a methodical manner to foster creativity to drive innovation.

Furthermore, with new generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and now Bing, it is easy and amazingly fast to perform.

Using Generative AI for Cross-Domain Thinking

Professor Ethan Mollick from Wharton is a thought-leader in this area. In his substack, One Useful Thing, he has illustrated several times how he has used CDT using Bing (while I don’t believe Mollick uses the term cross-domain thinking, it appears to me that is what he is doing in several of his experiments).

One example in the above edition Mollick offers is to “use Granovetter’s theory of weak ties, virtual reality headsets, and a dolphin to design a new government program to increase innovation in the U.S.” The result is a program called “Dolphin Connect”. It would “aim to foster weak ties among innovators across different fields and sectors by using virtual reality headsets as a communication platform.” There are a number of other great connections Mollick provides in the piece and it’s definitely worth checking out.

I’ve been using ChatGPT for a few weeks to perform cross-domain thinking. A few examples:

Prompt: How might I apply concepts from the study of ants to develop new strategies for defense of a nation?

ChatGPT Response:

Prompt: How might concepts from systems thinking be applied to win football games?

How You Can Systematically Apply Cross-Domain Thinking

CDT is a powerful approach to drive creativity. The great news is you can use the approach methodically to generate new insights.

Lets say you have a domain to which you’re interested in applying CDT. It could be growing your business, developing IT solutions or teaching a subject such as global marketing. Now you need concepts to apply to it.

Farhnam Blog has a great list of 100 “mental models” you can use. It includes the following categories:

• Core Thinking Concepts

• Physics and Chemistry

• Biology

• Systems

• Numeracy

• Microeconomics

• Military and War

• Human Nature and Judgment

You can also use generative AI for help. ChatGPT can be prompted to offer concepts by simply asking, “Give me some categories of concepts” and it will comply (I almost said “happily comply” but caught myself apply human emotions to a machine that has none).

Or if you have a type of concept you wish to apply, such as natural phenomena, you can specify ideas within that category.

Maybe you want to apply abstract concepts to your area of interest. No problem.

The possibilities may not be endless but I doubt you will ever run out concepts to apply. The key is to perform cross-domain thinking both as the need may arise (e.g., new product development or customer-solution brainstorming) and on a regular basis to break out of old thought patterns. The method can be applied alone sitting in your office or by groups, either working together or by first executing it individually and then bringing the new insights into an idea-generation discussion.

Call to Action

With generative AI any person or group can be creative using CDT. If you are in a job that requires you to perform unconventional thinking, you should really consider using this methodology. Not only will it pay off handsomely with new insights and innovations, it’s a lot of fun.

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The Must-Have Skills in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: How AI’s Democratization Will Impact Workers

Here is an article on skills you will need for the AI future I wrote for the UNC Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Here are a few scenarios I project but it also includes a McKinsey analysis of attitudes and skills you will need going forward:

1. AI will not replace all cognitive jobs, but it will substantially change many of them.
   Given what AI tools like ChatGPT and others can do this is going to happen. It will just impact different professions at different rates. Those most impacted will be jobs where generative AI is growing; creative jobs in journalism, ad agencies, design firms; the video and music industries; and IT, medicine and law. AI tools will replace some of the work done, either within those organizations or by consumers outside those companies performing the work themselves (e.g., creating their own images and logos for personal use).
   

2. You won’t be replaced by AI. You will be replaced by a person with AI skills.
   The more than AI tools can be used to be productive in your job, the more this will be true for you. People who are fluent in generative and other types of AI will be able to get more done, be more creative, and learn faster than their counterparts who cannot. It behooves you to become proficient in these tools. Some interesting examples of how some professionals are using ChatGPT to be more productive include real estate agents using it to create listings, marketers using it to create video scripts, a designer using it to create a branding guide and a teacher using it to better serve students.
   

3. AI will eliminate some jobs in specific professions.
   At this point it is too early in the evolution of generative AI to say but it would seem logical that it will replace some percent of jobs in the specific professions mentioned above in #1.
   

4. AI will create new jobs.
   It is unclear how many new jobs generative AI will create, however, we are seeing some already appear, mostly around the ability to write good prompts for the AI. We are seeing this especially for ChatGPT text entry to text output and tools like DALL-E which is text entry to image output. For example, BuzzFeed is asking its employees to use ChatGPT to “write inspired prompts” to create content while a market has been created for people who can write prompts that create the highest quality generated artwork.