Does innovation cause significant positive change

Is the word innovation so over used that we just don’t care? Why would anyone spend time reading a book on innovation,

Light bulb moment: Is the word innovation so over used that we just don’t care? Why would anyone spend time reading a book on innovation, unless it is truly significant and could cause real change? Indeed, some people are asking us to stop using the term innovation entirely. In my opinion, it is just a word and words are free to be abused. Not according to Scott Burkin,

‘I’m confident in this advice: Stop using the word innovation. Just stop. Right now. Commit to never saying the word again. Einstein, Ford, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Jobs and Edison rarely said the word and neither should you.’

Is he right? Well a guarded, definitely maybe. I was astonished that, according to the Wall Street Journal, last year a search of annual and quarterly reports filed in the US, showed companies mentioned the word innovation 33,528 times last year, which was a 64% increase from five years before that. More than 250 books with innovation in the title have been published in the last three months, most of them dealing with business, according to a search of Amazon.com. Most are ironicallyvery dull, desperately out-of-date and do not add any significant positive change to world.

So what do you think about when you hear the word innovation? Do you see a light bulb? There are many definitions out there and the most common seems to be:

‘ An innovation is something original, new, and important – in whatever field – that breaks in to (or obtains a foothold in) a market or society’

In this definition the words original, new and important are vital. The key question is what is actually original, new and important and according to whom? Can we rely on this for the future guidance? Google gave me some 40+ definitions of the word. Throw them into Wordle you get:

The four key words are:

Create – This seems quite appropriate because innovation isn’t about ideas. It’s about turning something previously only thought about, into a reality.
Something – Innovation takes many forms, not just products or technology: inventions, services, experience, price, method, process and so on.
New – Even if you are applying innovation to the most staid industry in the world, there are still things being done, tried or tested that are new to that organisation.
Value – Innovation is pointless, unless it is focused on generating value: for customers, for its people, or its investors and stakeholders.

So, you could say that the definition of innovation boils down to create something new and of value or better still innovation causes significant positive change.Banks have been innovating for the last few hundred years, evolving into complex, modern organisations, that can transfer money across the world safely, instantly at the speed of light. Unless they are my bank, which seems to allow anyone in Honduras and Guatemala to take all my cash out while I am asleep in London. For most financial institutions, innovation means ensuring existing processes work faster, adding functions and features to existing automation, and inventing new financial products. So this is innovation where there is something new, but it’s not inherent in the product or service itself, it’s about the way it’s delivered, or the way it works.

We all know there are lots of pretentious words in business and companies use them indiscriminately. They include (but not exclusively):

Synergy,
Paradigm-shift,
Dynamic,
Breakthrough,
Game-changing,
Radical,
Future
Disruptive,
Transformative

and, of course, the ubiquitous innovation. It is quickly losing whatever meaning it once had. Bill Taylor in the Harvard Business review article, ‘Stop Me Before I “Innovate” Again!’, said,

‘Leaders who aim to challenge the limits of what’s possible in their fields, develop a “vocabulary of competition” that captures the impact they’re trying to have, the difference they’re trying to make, the future they’re hoping to create. Almost none of these companies and leaders use the word “innovation” to describe their strategy — implicitly or explicitly, they understand that it has been sapped of all substance. Instead, they offer rich and vivid descriptions of what they hope to do, where they hope to get, and why it matters.’

Just about every company says it has innovation. Businesses throw around the term to show they’re on the cutting edge of everything from technology and medicine to snacks and cosmetics. Companies are touting chief innovation officers, innovation teams, innovation strategies and even innovation days. Often innovation for companies actual means,

we need new ideas
we need better ideas,
we need big changes
we need to place big bets on new ideas
we want to make a lot more money

Innovation has been co-opted just like synergy and dynamic and a hundred other terms. This is an example of conflation, where innovate has come to mean which means re-imagine and re-create, with simply the word, change. Every company wants to be innovative of course. On their websites we have further dogma, with semi-profound (yet clichéd): We Innovate Every Day, Innovation by Design andInnovation Business Plan.

When it comes to innovation, the myth of the lone genius also dies hard. You will find dated anecdotes extolling how the boss of Southwest Airlines, Ritz Carlton or [insert company name of the day] are just brilliant at innovation, usually driven by a lone genius. Usually they will quote Steve Jobs – so I will repeat this trend, with his famous words,

‘Innovation is the difference between a leader and a follower.’

Steve Jobs didn’t have to say he was an innovator. He just had to hold up an iPhone. The best marketing is of course, a great product. Innovative companies firstre-create and re-imagine and disrupt, and then let others pile on the adjectives. Not the other way around.

There is little evidence people we would call the creatives, got that way by reading a particular book or watching a video. Maybe by hanging around Hoxton, or Central St. Martins. Most skills in life are only acquired by hard work; to be more creative means to create and learn, rather than merely read and be theoretical. But there are some books out there, that have or will cause significant positive change. I have been honoured to read excerpts from the brand new paperback, The Service Innovation Handbook: Action-oriented Creative Thinking Toolkit for Service Organizations. It is due out in paperback in January 2015 and is by the brilliant author and academic guru, Dr. Lucy Kimbell. @lixindex.The key word in the title is action. It is an excellent primer for those involved in service innovation. It is neither boring nor dull and is absolutely cutting edge. It is very readable and accessible to both academics and those involved in business, innovation and being an entrepreneur: order it now!

Another inspirational tome is from the great Peter Drucker. He has written a book that is profound, clear, concise and memorable Called Innovation and Entrepreneurship it is a short books that encapsulates all of the theory you need to think about starting a business and what it will take to find, develop, launch and grow product ideas.

Sometimes, however, what people mean by innovator is what we will call an innovative leader. Brain Rules, written by John Medina is an excellent neuroscience based book, that touches on the power of the brain to be truly creative and innovative. Those with these brain facets give rise to the small number of innovations that end up having big impacts.

We should also reflect on some older data and authors, that have had a profound influence, like Marshall McLuhan. He was a key thinker in the field and way ahead of his time. His work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory, as well as having practical applications in the advertising and television industries. Even if you’ve never read Marshall McLuhan, you’re probably familiar with a couple of his ideas. The medium is the message and The human family now exists under conditions of a global village. We live in a single constricted space resonant with tribal drums. Both of those quotes are around 50 years old now; McLuhan was remarkably prescient in predicting the World Wide Web. I love his quotation about the future: Only by standing aside from any phenomenon and taking an overview can you discover its operative principles and lines of force. Ordinary men, however, when confronted by new environments, resort to the rear-view mirror. We can’t extrapolate the past to predict the future. In a complex economy, the way to think about the future is this:

We can’t predict the future.
But we can learn about the patterns from which the future will emerge.
We can’t control the future, we can influence it.
The best way to influence the future is by innovating

So what can we do? The innovative leader is clearly not a micro-manager. They focus on the big picture and works with creative thinkers who can add to that vision and make it greater. Micro-managers, on the other hand, tend to stifle creativity and focus far too much on the details – causing them and their teams to lose sight of the big picture.

Perhaps most importantly, the innovative leader needs to be able to communicate their vision and generate enthusiasm for it. The team needs to be able to see the vision themselves and be willing to invest their own time and resources into making it happen. Innovative leaders know that leadership by demand is far less effective at encouraging creativity and innovation than is leadership through motivation and inspiration.

While the business world is in constant search of the next big thing, leaders must remember that you don’t so much need to be inventive as you do innovative. Being inventive is creating something new that has never existed. Innovation is the creation of something new that represents a communal adaptation or application used and embraced by the masses

If you go around telling people you’re humble, the opposite is true. Humble is a descriptor that’s bestowed not seized. The same is true with innovation. Calling a something an innovation or someone an innovator, doesn’t make it so.

I shall switch off the light bulb now.

Be Amazing Every Day

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