Innovation Theater [Rant]

In light of a need to learn, adapt and continuously reinvent, everyone has gotten bent on innovation. Companies are desperate to be perceived as innovative and they have abandoned innovation to instead focus on things that look innovative. Now, anything and everything is being framed as “innovation.” And so, the word “innovation” no longer means anything. 😤

Let’s get loud about what innovation is NOT.

• Innovation is not a synonym for business development.
• Incremental improvements on predictable trajectories are not innovation.
• New and different are not synonyms for innovation.
• Innovation isn’t necessarily synonymous with bootstrapping, being scrappy or MVPs.
• Incorporating innovative technology into your business isn’t innovation. Concepts like: a circular economy or subscription-based business models, standing desks are not innovation.
• Fundamentals, such as… EQ, time management and collaboration are not innovation.
• Research and Design Actions like talking to users or adjusting the visibility of a service, these are not innovation.
• Features like: Sliced bread are not an innovation. Double-stuffed Oreos are not innovation.

If you like the flat-footedness of this article, keep an eye out for, “Yeah, that’s NOT ethnography” …or check out an article I wrote last year called ‘X’ is NOT a sharing economy.

Now…What IS innovation.

But first, innovation doesn’t need to be an “AHA!” moment. It’s not other worldly. Innovation can emerge from innovating over time. It may take a lifetime of innovating to produce a single innovation. Few have the resources to support such work without disguising it at something else.

Innovation is a mistake.

Many a time, when someone is working on something and for one reason or another they make a mistake, perhaps they add something they didn’t plan to and the result of that unblocks a knew realm of thought and of possibility.

Innovation is a beach.

It’s a pivotal coming together that defines an Open, Bright and Blue trajectory. An innovation is a major proof that connects the real to previously unseeable realms of ideas.

Innovation refers to a rare point in history.

Innovation trumps up the need for conversation at the highest level of our socio-technical landscape… especially when innovation is exploited in a disruptive way.

A List of Innovations.

1. Opposable thumbs
2. The concept of money
3. The wheel
4. The engine
5. Computers
6. The internet

Objectively, these concepts and their epistemic roots taken together bend the future toward their trajectory. They are important and deserve the classification “innovation.” The effects of such innovations become engrained into the very fabric of our lives, for better or for worse.

And the tough reality is that people don’t need innovation. What they likely need is the combined strength of integrity and disloyalty.

source: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Afterward.

I’ve been iterating over a Speculative Futures Model and a design strategy that will keep companies open to innovation.

The symbol, ○ represents a solution.

In making this model I learned that stemming innovation could be possible if you…

1. Back-cast from plausible and possible futures to preferable futures thereby jumping mental vision-blockers.
2. Point to well-communicated possible way-points and scenarios to orient ambiguity and inspire ingenuity. (Entertainment does a fair bit of this).

Feel like reading about the transdisciplinary nature of an Innovation Education, check out my first Medium article.

Have a comment, question, or just feel like berating my point-of-view with a snappy video message, shoot me an email.

feature image source.