Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Innovation Definition
Joyce Wycoff, originator of the Innovation Network http://www.thinksmart.com, hosted an on-line chat yesterday, on the subject of the definition of innovation. The chatroom was on http://www.isopi.org where you can view the somewhat chaotic discussion, if you are interested. I played the role of provacateur, asking why we need a definition, and several people agreed that a definition is emerging, through the popular press, through the over-use of the term, and, sadly, "innovation" may go through what has happened to "quality" in the last 20 years, as it becomes an advertising claim and a slogan.
Overall definition by this group (all consultants in various creativity/innovation fields) was that innovation occurs when a creative idea is turned into something of value
Innovation = Creativity + Implementation (alternate term was "exploitation")
What happens when something is valuable to me but harmful to someone else? I called that an imperfect implementation, with a contradiction, and therefore a perfect opportunity to apply TRIZ to keep the good but remove the harm.
Comments are welcome!
Overall definition by this group (all consultants in various creativity/innovation fields) was that innovation occurs when a creative idea is turned into something of value
Innovation = Creativity + Implementation (alternate term was "exploitation")
What happens when something is valuable to me but harmful to someone else? I called that an imperfect implementation, with a contradiction, and therefore a perfect opportunity to apply TRIZ to keep the good but remove the harm.
Comments are welcome!
