I have done a little brainstorming on innovation and created a top level mind map of my thinking around innovation. We will explore each area of the map in future blog entries. I call this the 6 Cs – collaboration, communication, community, creativity, curiosity, and culture. Innovation is a full holistic process and not just about technology. It is about people, processes, and technology. Each of the Cs brings innovation to being not just a personal process but also a collaborative one. It requires someone with good communication skills, someone to be creative, and someone with curiosity. Someone willing to ask questions and be curious. A big part of innovation is about asking the right questions. Innovation is also about community. You can have the greatest idea in the world but it will never be successful because the community does not adopt it. As part of community, you need to understand the culture of the targeted community. More about this in another post.
I have my own definition of innovation that has been informed by Phil McKinney of www.killerinnovations.com and Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative.
in * no * va * tion [in-uh-vey-shuhn]
- noun
1. the process of taking an original idea that has value from conception to adoption.
Innovation is about ideas that have value. It is also about being able to take it from an idea to be used by the community at large. You can have a great idea but it does not mean you can bring it to the world who will adopt and embrace it. Remember, it can be a process and/or technology (either physical or virtual). Innovation is both social and technical. It requires both the right and left brain. It requires form and function.
Since we are now in a Creative Economy where creativity and innovation is king. What are some of the skills needed for innovators. The 21st century skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org) web site is where we will begin the exploration of skill sets in creativity and innovation. These lists are useful to begin a dialogue and not an end in itself. I say this because someone will want to take these skills and create a curriculum based on traditional teaching methods which will not work for these kinds of behavioral skills. You must learn from experience and not from listening to lectures and taking tests.
So, from Partnership for 21st Century Skills web site -
Creativity and Innovation
* Demonstrating originality and inventiveness in work
* Developing, implementing and communicating new ideas to others
* Being open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives
* Acting on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the domain in which the innovation occurs
If you look at these points, you will see most of them being behavioral in nature. The key aspect of innovation is being able to take ideas from conception to production whether it is a physical product or a software product or a process. I believe that you can apply innovation to people, processes, and technology.
Invention is different from innovation. Just because you invent something does not make you an innovator. An example of this is the operating system. Bill Gates did not invent DOS but he was able to innovate to bring DOS to the masses. This is something to keep in the back of your mind.
Sorry, I have not posted in a while. I have been a big fan of Killer Innovations (www.killerinnovations.com).
I have been very concerned about the future of technological work. Part of my doctoral research I wanted to figure out where the future is going.
We have entered a creative economy that is very focused on ideas and innovation. I have suggested in the past that we are entering a new renaissance. Today, left and right brain thinkers is what is needed. Form and function is important. One is not important over another. A good example is the Apple iPhone and iPod.
What are the implications of this thinking? Traditional disciplines and educational models are quickly becoming commodities. The world is about how to generate ideas and bring them quickly to market. Innovation is the key to the future. To me, this means we need to educate and train new technological workers in a different way with creativity and innovation as important goals in education. This is not a focus in most programs.
Slowly but surely, the Hollywood model of creating movies is coming to the technological workforce. Everyone will be a consultant in the future. The Hollywood model is about bringing the talent together to create a movie and then the team is disbanded at the end. This is increasing happening in technology.
There are two kinds of companies…you have the big companies and the small companies. The employees in a big company has a corporate entity to be able to move between projects. Employees are somewhat isolated from the risk that small companies The small companies live on a project by project basis and may have multiple customers at one time.
Between the move to the Creative Economy and the change in the employment contract, technological professionals need to stay on their toes and stay current.
