The Great Innovation Lie

This headline in Chuck Frey's latest InnovationTools newsletter caught my eye.  It is the headline for an article by Jeffrey Baumgartner, the managing director of a Belgium-based innovation consulting firm.

He states, "The great lie of innovation today is that it must be complex to be effective."  I agree but wondered if that would be what I would call the "great lie" or what others would put in that category.

Here are a few I might nominate for the honor:

• We don't need more ideas ... we just need to implement the ones we have.
• Innovation needs to be radical not just incremental.
• Putting the same people in the same room thinking about the same problems can create a breakthrough.
• Needing double-digit growth is an exciting challenge that will stimulate new thinking.
• We can ask people for more innovation without creating a process for rapid approval and seed funding.
• We can expect innovation from people who are already overloaded.
• Software can create innovation.

I could go on but it would be more fun to hear from you.  Please comment below.

Comments

[rafiq]

I'm, 22, just about to complete my studies in IS and am working at a firm where the owner has been shooting down my ideas, which after alot of googling seems to be forms of innovation, left right & center.

I am struggling to get thru to him and nothing I've tried seems to help. Is this a case of 'you CAN teach an old, stubborn dog new tricks' which I would like to nominate.

I have been implementing these ideas in my personal porjects & am having great success.