Innovative by Design

12.08.10

Innovative by Design

No matter where you turn these days, the word "innovation" seems to connect itself to so many advertorial mediums.  Just pick up your remote control and start flipping through commercials, and you are likely to hear:

"This new innovative technology..."

"... in such an innovative way"

"Our team of innovative innovators innovated the most innovating innovation of the 21st century..."

In the midst of this linguistic abuse, I'll admit that the root definition of the term "innovation" has been lost in my mind.  

Until now.

You see it all starts with... Imagination!

Imagination:  Thoughts in our mind.  Daydream.  Think WAY outside the box.  Remember when you were a kid, and two chairs and an old bed sheet became "Fort Frontier" as well as your imaginative "command base" for the rest of the summer.  Think, relentlessly. 

then...

Creativity:  The ability to USE your imagination.  Creativity is not raw thinking (contrary to modern day belief)... but rather it is the ability to leverage an active imagination and pull out ideas to show the world!

then...

Innovation!:  Ah, here we are.  The word we've all been waiting for!  Innovation is the act or process of creating ideas.  Act.  Process.  There is form AND function to innovation.  It is a new way of thinking that has a system attached.  Innovation leverages the power of Left (logic) and Right (creative) brain thinking, together!

then...

Invention:  What good is an idea without somewhere to put it?  Invention is the step in the mix where imagined, creative innovations are connected to a discovered need.  The act of discovery can be the most exciting time for engineers and scientists, because here is where traction begins!

and finally...

Design:  To develop something for a purpose... typically monetization.  This present day jargon term in the business world connects idea creation to revenue generation.

I like to think of it like five separate glasses.  Once the first is filled, then it overflows to the next, and so on...  imagination leads to creativity which leads to innovation which leads to invention which leads to developing a repeatable methodology for walking this trail in the future (design.)

With this new understanding of where "innovation" fits into the puzzle of idea generation and business strategy, perhaps we can now understand the importance of "think time" and "PLAY."

It is essential that we do not approach every business decision with our "six sigma" "kaizen" linear thinking, only.  

It is essential that we do not approach every business decision with a pallet of water colors and a Moleskine filled with chicken scratch drawings, only.  

But if we can tap into the power of collaborative potential between both sides of our souls (the creative and the logical) and harness that energy intentionally for business growth (design)... then maybe... just maybe... we will find our place in the history books as 2011's true "innovators."