Reverse Engineering Innovation — What Neuroscience Reveals about the MCE Model
#9 WHY the MCE Model
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Reverse Engineering Innovation — What Neuroscience Reveals about the MCE Model
The MCE model — named after its three key components: Mission, Combination, and Experiment — is a theory designed to help organizations systematically generate innovation. Focusing on the management of value creation itself, this model goes beyond a theoretical concept. As previously explained, it is supported by three concrete and repeatable frameworks: the Mission Framework (#6 MCE Model:Mission framework), the Combination Framework (#7 MCE Model:Combination framework), and the Experiment Framework (#8 MCE Model_Experiment framework). When interpreted through the lens of modern neuroscience, the core of the MCE theory becomes clear: creativity and innovation are not reliant on individual talent alone — they can be strategically designed and implemented as a form of organizational management.
※This article draws on insights from Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation by cognitive neuroscientist Elkhonon Goldberg (Oxford University Press).
● The Relationship Between Creativity and Innovation
The relationship between creativity and innovation unfolds like a two-act play:
- Act 1: Every innovation begins with someone’s creativity. In other words, a new idea or concept marks the starting point.
- Act 2: That idea must then be accepted by society and established as something of value. This, in turn, inspires further creativity — creating an ongoing cycle between creation and innovation.
Creativity is the ability to generate new ideas or perspectives — it’s the process of coming up with original thoughts or unique solutions. Innovation, on the other hand, is the process of turning those creative ideas into tangible value that can be shared with and accepted by society. Even the most brilliant idea in science, art, or technology will eventually fade away if it is not recognized and embraced by society within a certain period — it will fail to become innovation.
When viewed through the lens of the MCE model, this relationship becomes even clearer. The Combination Framework focuses on the creative actions that generate fresh ideas and perspectives — it plays the role of creativity in this model. Meanwhile, the Experiment Framework is the process of testing those ideas and validating their impact in the real world. It corresponds to innovation itself.
Innovation always carries the risk of rejection — ideas may be ignored or forgotten if they don’t resonate with the times or society. This is why the Experiment Framework plays a crucial role: it helps transform creative ideas into innovations that are recognized and sustained by society.
● Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
To demonstrate true creativity, certain prerequisites must be in place. People who display high levels of creativity invariably possess a solid foundation of knowledge and theory already established in their field. They build on this base to achieve evolutionary, rather than purely revolutionary, creativity. In other words, they are “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
This principle is supported by what’s often called the “10-Year Rule” — the idea that it typically takes at least ten years of dedicated practice to develop the deep expertise necessary for high-level creative achievement in any specialized domain. Put simply, new knowledge and original ideas — what we might call novel combinations — can only emerge when they are grounded in a rich accumulation of past knowledge.
● The Prefrontal Cortex: The Brain’s Center for Imagining the Future
The prefrontal cortex plays a central role in enabling goal-directed behavior. Its main function is to organize and coordinate the activities of other brain regions — such as the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes — and guide behavior toward purposeful outcomes. In other words, it acts as a metacognitive control tower. Specifically, the prefrontal cortex is responsible for setting goals, planning actions, making decisions, predicting outcomes, and regulating impulses. These functions allow humans to tackle complex problems and act with a long-term perspective.
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The prefrontal cortex is a relatively recent development in the course of evolution and is particularly well-developed in humans. In the context of the MCE model, installing(embedding) a clear sense of purpose or mission (“To do what?”) into the prefrontal cortex is exactly the role of the Mission Framework.
● The Parietal, Temporal, and Occipital Lobes: Where the Past Is Stored
Humans store perceptual images, knowledge, and memories across wide areas of the brain, particularly in the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. In the Combination Framework of the MCE model, the “current state analysis”(deconstruction) process involves breaking down these existing components and generating new alternatives for each of them.
This process begins with the goal or mission defined in the Mission Framework. Once the mission is installed(embedded) in the prefrontal cortex, it activates goal-oriented thinking. In response, each individual involved in development recalls relevant knowledge and memories stored in their brain. The more diverse the backgrounds and experiences of team members, the greater the range and depth of knowledge that can be drawn upon. As a result, the alternatives that emerge tend to be more creative and varied, providing a richer foundation for innovation.
● Creativity and the Prefrontal Cortex
When perceptual images like “human” and “fish” are combined, the result can be a fictional figure like a mermaid — half-human, half-fish. Similarly, the “Lion Man,” a sculpture discovered in a German cave dating back 35,000 to 40,000 years, represents a creative fusion of a human body with a lion’s head.
This kind of imaginative creation happens when the prefrontal cortex reorganizes stored memories from the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. In other words, creativity is a cognitive process that arises from combining existing knowledge and mental images in new ways. The “System Synthesis” stage in the Combination Framework of the MCE model mirrors this process. It involves integrating diverse elements contributed by multiple individuals — a structured approach that closely resembles how the prefrontal cortex drives creative thinking.
● Synchronized and Functionally Connected Brain Networks
The prefrontal cortex acts as the central hub for combining information. It works in coordination with the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, which store memories and knowledge. Depending on the task or cognitive context, these regions synchronize their activity to form what is known as a functionally connected network in the brain.
Two main networks are typically involved:
- The Central Executive Network (CEN) is activated during tasks that require attention, reasoning, and decision-making. It is responsible for higher-order cognitive functions.
- The Default Mode Network (DMN) becomes active when there is no external task at hand — for example, during rest, introspection, memory recall, or imagining the future.
What’s particularly interesting is that the DMN enables creative associations to arise naturally. In the absence of external demands, accumulated knowledge and imagery are freely recombined in the brain. This process closely resembles the “System Synthesis” stage of the Combination Framework in the MCE model. However, not all combinations generated by the brain rise to conscious awareness. The prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in filtering these ideas, evaluating them against the installed mission or goal, and selecting only the most relevant combinations. This evaluation process mirrors the “System Analysis” stage in the MCE model.
● Creativity Born from the Unconscious Mind
The French mathematical genius Henri Poincaré vividly described how his creative discoveries often emerged during states of unconscious thought — what we now understand as activity in the brain’s default mode. In his book Science and Method, he explains that he didn’t come up with the important concept of “Fuchsian functions” while working at his desk. Instead, the idea suddenly struck him as he was about to step into a carriage during a geological field trip. He also experienced similar flashes of insight while casually walking along a cliff or crossing a busy street — moments far removed from focused, conscious effort. These experiences led Poincaré to believe that even while resting, the brain continues to work unconsciously beneath the surface.
This same mechanism of creative thinking appears in A Technique for Producing Ideas by James W. Young, a prominent figure in the 20th-century advertising world. Young argued that good ideas are not just flashes of luck — they can be generated through a repeatable process, which he outlined in five steps. One of the most notable is Step 3: “Drop the subject.” In this phase, he recommended letting go of the problem entirely and allowing the mind to rest. According to Young, after this “unconscious incubation period,” ideas often surface suddenly and unexpectedly. This moment of surprise insight is essentially the same phenomenon that Poincaré described: creativity that arises when we are not consciously trying to be creative.
● Creativity Can Be Managed
From this perspective, the MCE Model structurally mirrors the mechanisms of creativity in the human brain. It enables organizations to move beyond reliance on individual talent and create conditions where anyone can participate in the creative process. The essence of the model is to treat innovation not as a product of personal genius, but as a form of management — something that can be intentionally designed and implemented at the organizational level.
Essentially, the MCE model transforms knowledge workers from being mere problem solvers into creative knowledge workers capable of producing new value.
