You may recall that in school, you learned that all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. As I visit websites and blogs that claim to discuss innovation I often find they are only discussing change. This is just a part of today's need to inflate titles not responsibilities. Like calling sales people "business development" people or account managers. They don't really develop a business they sell. They don't manage accounts they try not to lose them.
Perhaps the best way to see the difference between change and innovation is to think of how difficult the second really is. Werner Sombart, a German economist, coined the term, "Creative Destruction" in regard to the way that true innovation can cause chaos in a business or market. Later, Joseph Schumpeter used this term to describe how capitalism is invigorated, and how long-term growth is stimulated, by the entrepreneurial destruction of existing or established market dominance. Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan listed the three kinds of change; Incremental, Substantial, and Transformational, in their 2001 book, "Creative Destruction." Yet, in reality, only the last is more than just change. As they put it, Transformational change renders existing knowledge and skill obsolete.
As you consider the progress of your business, personal career, or life, think about that last sentence, and see if you are creating change that renders existing skill or knowledge obsolete. It is difficult to do. That is why it can be so well rewarded. The lightbulb made candle making skill and art nearly obsolete. The car made knowing how to ride a horse obsolete. Word processing software has made whiteout and carbon paper nearly obsolete.
In the tradition of the 6 questions:
When do you adopt new technology?
What transformation would put you (or your business) out of business?
Where can you find out if anyone is doing that now?
Why don't you do it before it is done to you?
How can you co-opt the innovators to be a partner not an enemy?
Who will care about your business enough to tell you before it is too late?
To help you answer these questions I suggest looking into a few good books, such as Foster and Kaplan's mentioned above. Christensens, "The Innovators Dilemma" (free chapter at BusinessWeek) and Livingston's "Founders At Work." You may also want to visit Jeffery Phillips "Innovate On Purpose" blog or Chuck Frey's "Innovation Tools" blog. For a great read, try Langdon Morris' "Permanent Innovation" which you can get for free from the Innovation Labs website as an ebook.
The image is Fig.14. "Golden Rectangles," Squares, and the Equiangular Spiral k = Phi 4l From
PART IVB2C: THE PHEIDIAN PLANORBIDAE of the Spiras Solaris
by John N. Harris, M.A. (Cmns) , which I will not try to explain, since I would just mess it up.
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