part0004

Innovation – the development of a product, service, or cause that is new, or a bit different. It can be as far-reaching in application as global use, or as local as community service. The intended outcome, however, is for the betterment of more than one user. Innovation is rooted in continuous motivation to improve upon an existing innovation. In other words, the innovation will evolve as more users are identified for its benefit.

Problem-Solving is different than innovation. Problem-solving, for this textbook’s purposes, is intended to remedy a problem for the individual and/or to reach a pre-determined goal (like completing a puzzle). Whereas innovation is the remedy to a problem without a determined end point that will help many people.

I have a plot of land that is not being used by me, but it costs me money. I want to discover a solution to maintain the land so I am no longer losing money.

You can look at the land as a type of product. If someone is willing to rent the land from you, that person can be seen as an example of the “market.” Once you are doing business it is a product market fit if it is successful.

If you design an innovation as a product market fit , you will help others. To further explain, if the land is used to board horses for cross-country travelers, the travelers will pay the owner, but all the travelers now have a place to board her horses during a cross-country journey. The owner has to consider how to accommodate the travelers and the horses and many other steps, but the purpose of the land has been changed. The products and services added to the land are the implementation of the innovation.

You may say that entrepreneurship is at work here, and not innovation. However, we disagree – we believe it is both. The land accommodations are changed which is a requirement of innovation – change. The change in the use of the land to boarding accommodations is the innovation. To meet the product/market fit, fences will need to be built, shelter erected, and water made accessible. If the land is left as is--a big open space--horse owners will not board their horses on the land because the horse is not secure. From there a business is built. The innovation in regard to the land will affect and benefit the landowner and others. However, if the land was not used in a business, but say a garden, if would be problem-solving. This is the synergy of innovation.

Problem-Solving is to fix a problem for the individual. This could be a problem of yours or someone else. It may appear that solving a problem for someone else would meet the definition of innovation, however, it is not. The problem being fixed for another does not affect you, long-term. However, if you were to take the information you received from the solved-problem and implemented it as a replicable fix, then it is an innovation. This distinction may be like splitting hairs, but hair-splitting is needed with innovation.

This is solving a problem. The problem is not designed to help others. It is not to say that the solved problem will not help others, but that is not the initial intent. Once the problem is solved to your liking or reaches the defined goal, the process is complete.

The “aha moment ” is the moment when an idea hits you. An “aha moment” is a combination of all your conscious and subconscious processing coming together. It could just come to you in an instance with no seemingly rational explanation for its existence (like in the shower), or you could have been working on it for a while. As you continue in this textbook, you will come to understand there are many avenues to understand the “aha moment.”

There might be questions why the “aha moment” is listed in the innovation and problem-solving section. The reason for this question is that an “aha moment” is the generation of an idea. However, sometimes, innovation flows from an “aha moment,” and sometimes the “aha moment” is unrelated. The “aha moment” is referred to as an ideation, which is the second phase of the innovation process.

Geniuses do not create the most practical, everyday innovations. There is a never-ending flow of innovation, but a rather limited number of geniuses. Although geniuses are of superior intellect, they are people, too. A genius may be able to produce a more elaborate innovation, but the motivation for innovating can be matched by those of regular intelligence.

A wise man once said, “To tell someone to think differently is as helpful to would-be innovators as ‘swing differently’ is to golfers” (Razeghi, 2008, p. 6). When you tell someone to think differently about a situation, what are you really telling that person? Nothing. “Think differently” is a useless statement to someone who needs guidance. However, to tell someone to think deliberately, you are at least giving some direction. To think deliberately about a situation, thoughts become focused on the situation in need of change. There are no answers in “Think deliberately,” however, the focus is put on the problem and that is a good place to start.

Just the mention of the word failure is painful. Innovation is not an idea; it is a tangible outcome which produces a product, service, or cause, when fully implemented. Since innovation requires a new or different tangible outcome, there’s often a struggle with implementation, and early failure is likely. Fortunately , failure is inevitable. Sad, but true; failure is one of the most indispensable events to any success. It is hard to have an appreciation for failure because it is no fun. However, failure sharpens us; it sharpens our minds and provides the energy needed to make success a reality.

As an example, failure can be due to the lack of implementation. Listing “steps” to implement is not “proof” of future implementation. Ideas are not innovations, and innovations are not “correct.” Innovations must be implemented.

The concepts of innovation were identified to give labels to events which happen during the innovation process. The process of innovation is within every one of us. Innovation requires active engagement with the concepts and active guidance. Learning to spell is not an innate skill, but a nurtured skill. A human’s ability to innovate is innate; however, the systematic skills process is learned. The benefit to mastering the process of innovation is that it can be applied to known and unknown future challenges.

Sometimes, connections are not obvious. To understand connections is to understand that all things are connected, and to better understand the world in which we exist. The problem is that many of these connections are not obvious, and thus go unrecognized for some time. We should try to discover some of these connections to better our state of affairs, and to innovate. Some connections are simple, while others take weeks to think through. Since innovation is not a predetermined outcome, we must discover how solutions to other problems can be applied in new ways. If this principle is practiced, connections help us see possible answers.

Constraints- while many of us don’t like the idea of being constrained in one way or other, we are. It is because of constraints that innovation is required. No one is asked to fix something that works perfectly. Instead of having constraints work against us, we can creatively devise strategies to have these constraints work for us. Time constraints, for example, may be seen as a negative stressor; however, most of us realize if it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done. While not having enough money can be rough, it can get the innovative juices flowing about how to save more money, how to improve your chances for a promotion, or how to start a viable business.

“Curiosity is the mother of invention” is a helpful, but not an all-encompassing cliché of innovation. It is constraints that makes us dig deeper into our abilities. Determine which constraint is holding you back as you pursue a solution, then alter the way you manage and use the constraint.