Toward a Better Definition of Innovation

Innovation is one of those words that mean something different to each person that hears it.
When you describe the while framework as an Innovation Process the confusion compounds
exponentially. The word Process is more misleading than the word Innovation.

Heres why. The word process connotes a linear form of systemization and optimization, given
the many processes that were formed under the banner of industrialization and the scientific
management worldview.

Therefore, when the phrase Innovation Process is uttered, minds befuddle and cloud with a
myriad of inaccurate meanings. The word process has been co-opted to mean a step-by-step
sequence that makes doing something more efficient by a given system of measurement.
Notions of other processes for manufacturing concepts or actual goods prove this theory:
Lean, Six Sigma, TQM, Kaizen, for example.

The ghost of Edward Winslow Taylor haunts the word process. As a mechanical engineer and as
the father of Scientific Management, Taylor was the philosophical force behind many of the
principals used during the Industrial Revolution. Most of his consulting was based in applying
engineering concepts to make factory function at a higher rate of productivity.

All of the types of processes listed above are based in Taylors school of thought. In this
system process equals Value Engineering. This system is where you derive new value by
squeezing it out of an existing system.

In innovation the process equals New Value Creation. This process of creation is non-linear,
even iterative, insights-based, and way-finding, a process of discovery, not optimization;
sometimes, it can be like playing the childrens game Chutes and Ladders as the team gains
ground, then has to revert back to an earlier stage in the framework to dig deeper.

Or, think of the difference this way. In the Industrial World processes were logical, but in the
Post-Industrial World (the age of networks, our era) processes are psychological, just like the
humans we serve and the dynamic market itself. The world we inhabit changes so fast.
Organizations die everyday, or leap across the ocean in a flash.

The dizzying rate of change happens as fast as Google Fiber allows it to move, which is much
faster than the naked eye can see. To define the word Process from a bygone era means to
miss the unveiling of the emerging world and its quantum quick, disruptive, dynamic glory
and it miss the opportunities that only a rebirth of perception allows to see.

Next time you hear the phrase Innovation Process pay attention. Let it serve as a mantra to
wake you up to a new realm of possibilities of new value creation, new systems, new business
models, new ways to be in the market, different methods for solving vexing problems.

Dont let the monkeys of your mind spit out historic meanings of important words that impede
your understanding. Yes, value engineering and its processes will always have its place in the
world, but an Innovation Process has nothing to do with that mindset or set of practices.
Generating new value by seeing the world and its needs in new ways is the essence of an
Innovation Process.

Michael Graber is the managing partner of the Southern Growth Studio, an innovation and
strategic growth firm based in Memphis, TN. Visit www.southerngrowthstudio.com to
learn more.