What do you mean, Innovation? Breaking the Buzzword

Posted on April 23, 2018
By Galen MacLusky

team working at table with computers 5 3Have you ever left a conversation about innovation suspecting that everyone was talking about very different things? Like all buzzwords, the meaning of ‘innovation’ has become muddy and unclear over time, and yet ‘innovation’ is often seen as a panacea for our social ills. But is ‘innovation’ what we do, or what we aspire to do? Here are three questions that I’ve found helpful to narrow in on exactly what I, and others, mean when we talk about innovation.

Do you mean Innovation Processes or Innovative Outcomes?

The word ‘innovation’ can unfortunately refer to both the process and the outcome. We need to clearly distinguish between the two. It’s easy to assume that innovation processes will directly lead to the desired innovative outcome, and forget that many innovative outcomes (e.g., the Blue Bin, Women’s Councils, etc.) have emerged without the intent to formally engage in innovation processes. If we want an innovative outcome, but focus on encouraging and measuring the process we may never achieve the result we want. Or we may want innovation processes (e.g., we want to build a culture of innovation in our community) but focus on measuring innovative outcomes instead of our processes.

Do you mean Revolutionary Innovation or Evolutionary Innovation?

How much will we disrupt the norm? Do we think we could be doing better to educate our nation’s youth, or do we think we’re approaching education in entirely the wrong way? The resources, people, metrics, and timelines required vary greatly depending on what we mean (as well as the discomfort faced by the people involved). What are we willing to commit to, and why? Are we asking people and organizations to engage in revolutionary innovation when we mean evolutionary innovation (or vice versa)? Being clear about the intended result will help everyone stay on track towards that result, and help avoid unfortunate surprises when we realize we were talking about different types of ‘innovation.’

Do you mean Local Innovation or Systems Innovation?

Do we want new initiatives, programs, and services, or are we looking to change something much bigger about the way our world works? People, organizations, and groups are located in vastly different places with respect to the type of change they are able to affect. An organization that has a high degree of control over local innovation (e.g., a Community Food Bank) has very little control over systems innovation, even if their work may inspire it. Similarly, organizations that can affect change to Canada’s Food System have very little control over exactly what a staff member at a Community Food Bank says and does, even if they can exert some broader influence. Problems emerge when we expect an organization or individual to affect a type of innovation that is outside their scope of influence.

Asking these questions can help more clearly define what we mean and don’t mean when we say ‘innovation.’ We often talk about ‘innovation’ as a lofty, nebulous goal, and that makes it sound both more exciting and less accessible than it really is. With that in mind, here’s one last bonus question to ask if the previous three don’t help:

How is ‘innovation’ in our context meaningfully more specific than ‘Change – that is good?’ In other words, what kind of change and what kind of good do we hope to accomplish?

Topics:
Community Innovation, Galen MacLusky


Galen MacLusky

By Galen MacLusky

While Galen was at Tamarack he led the Community Innovation Idea Area. He is passionate about working with community organizations to help build and scale new ideas that deepen their impact. An experienced design, innovation, and co-creation consultant, at the core of his work are approaches that help organizations engage with those who are impacted by their services and test new programs and services with minimal investment. Over the past five years, Galen has used these approaches to help Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations across North America reinvent the services and programs they provide.

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