Innovation Misconception

People are falling into a trap: the mindset that they aren’t innovative because they haven’t thought of the next big idea. Maybe they think they’re not creative enough, smart enough, young enough, confident enough or have enough time. Whatever their hangup, they simply have the wrong idea about what innovation is.

Innovation Defined ​

It’s important that we start here. Bear with me on this. You might be surprised that you don’t know the definition of the word. Innovation is defined simply as:

“The introduction of something new” - Merriam-Webster

That’s a definition that doesn’t mince words. Let’s break down its key elements: introduction, something and new.

Introduction ​

The act of introducing means that something has been communicated to some sort of audience. An email, an article published in a peer-reviewed journal or a humble tweet. A secret is not innovative, it’s just a secret.

Something ​

A something could essentially be anything. A physical, real thing or an intangible process thing. You could wax poetic on how one defines a thing . If you’re really interested about how to define things, there’s an entire branch of philosophy called Ontology that could be right up your alley. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say a thing can be tangible or intangible, singular or composed of other things.

New ​

This should really be as self-explanatory. But it’s probably more nuanced than most people realize. Merriam-Webster defines it as “having recently come into existence”. What you think of as new is really a subjective, temporally relative existential concept. Heavy stuff.

Mythical Big Ideas ​

Big ideas are sexy. They have a certain allure. Teasing our imaginations with grand visions of success and affecting change on all sorts of scales.

Big ideas are disruptive. They’re what seemingly every startup is based on. Some big idea that’s going to change X industry, change the way you do Y forever, do social good for Z, etc. Serial entrepreneurs stake their careers on them while venture capitalists stake their reputation. Silicon Valley chews through disruptive ideas on a daily basis.

Big ideas are radical. Not in the So Cal “radical, bro!” sense but in that they are breakthroughs in understanding, technology, process, knowledge… anything. For example, something that comes out of R&D labs, toiled over by teams of scientists in white lab coats over the course of years.

Big ideas like these represent two types of innovation: disruptive and breakthrough innovation. When people think about innovation they think about big ideas. How often do big ideas come around? How many are actually successful? Not surprisingly this is where people lead themselves astray. Maybe we’ve been drinking too much of the Silicon Valley Kool-Aid.

Big ideas are great, but they’re maddeningly rare. You don’t need to have big ideas to be an innovator. If you did, then only research scientists and startup founders would be introducing new things.

Magical Small Ideas ​

The real meat of innovation happens with small ideas, the third type called incremental innovation. Anything that makes another thing better is an innovation. Here anyone with an idea and some elbow grease can be an innovator.

Small ideas seem common and unsexy, unless you’re really into it. Perhaps this is why people don’t consider them innovations. “You’re just making something a little better, how is that innovative?” they might say. “Just making something better” is progress, it is innovation. Introducing something new to something else is how that something else becomes better. You can’t get more innovative than that.

Demystified ​

Lots of people spend bewildering amounts of time trying to come up with the next big idea. Stop trying so hard. Unless you have some uncanny ability or extremely lucky, you’ll probably just end up burned out or, at best, really bummed out. Let the big ideas happen on the muses’ time.

Join the masses of innovators by looking at how you can incrementally improve something. Celebrate the small innovations as much as you would the big. Small innovations lead to big changes more often than you may realize.

Extra Credit ​

If learning is something you’re in to I’d recommend picking up “Innovation & Entrepreneurship” by Peter Drucker. It has some dry spots, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a better resource about innovation, what its sources are and how to manage it.