I don't think Sooooo...What do you say?????????

Have We Lost Sight of the Real Meaning of Innovation

As new terms go, innoveracy may be a bit of a mouthful, but it’s breaking important ground in today’s business landscape.

Horace Dediu, an analyst with Asymco, recently published an essay after realizing there is a universal ignorance around the meaning of innovation. He argues there is a fundamental misunderstanding around the concept, so he is attempting to coin the word innoveracy, which means the inability to understand creativity and the role it plays in society, to both describe and address what he sees as a worsening problem.

Only time will tell whether the word works its way into the popular vernacular, but the issue Dediu raises is important and timely. As a business culture, we have become obsessed with the word innovation. Its meaning, as Dediu describes, is very simple: “something new and uniquely useful.” However, as we have come to embrace innovation as a popular topic of discussion, its definition has been stretched to the point where we truly are losing sight of its real meaning.

It’s now possible to over-innovate, under-innovate and pre-innovate, among countless other types of innovations. In truth, a spectrum of innovation shouldn’t exist. However, now it does, and many people in business, regardless of experience level or role within the organization, are expected to embrace and operate under an increasingly broad array of definitions.

This needlessly complicates what should be a simple mandate and increases pressure in the workplace.