One Apple A Day #453 - Innovation is an attitude
When I was looking for my definition of innovation, I found the amazing work on the topic of Professor Benoit Godin. His definition is the results of his extensive research on the history of innovation.
“Innovation is a deliberate human change to something existing to create something new.”
The word that struck me the most in this definition is "deliberate".
Innovation does not just happen. It is a deliberate change.
To me, that means that to create innovation is not enough to declare it or to make some once-in-a-while strategic choices such as building an innovation team, hiring the right people, learning new methodologies and buying smart tools.
Innovation is an attitude that we must practice every day.
Too often we look at incredible innovations as if they came out of a magical burst of creativity of some talented guy or team. I can understand why. Most of the time the ideas that changed everything were completely unpredictable just an instant before they surface. But those a-ha moments did not happen by chance. They were the results of a deliberate choice to be open, curious. They sparkled from an attitude of innovation.
"With everything perfect, we do not ask how it came to be. Instead, we rejoice in the present fact as though it came out of the ground by magic." —F. Nietzsche