I was scanning through some articles on management and, for obvious reasons, the word “innovation” drew my attention.  So I clicked on the link and found other words highlighted for my attention, “Ideation”, “Screening”, “Prototyping”, “Commercialising”, “Diffusion” and, “Implementation”.    A model for innovation.  The article continued and suggested ways for management to take control and manage the innovation process.

Now it made sense, all those sessions with the funny toys writing on walls and the big audacious goal speeches.  We were put together in teams, solved weird puzzles, and built structures with marshmallows and straws; by the way, I love marshmallows—all in an attempt to determine the most innovative team.

A competition, nothing like a huge prize to drive innovation! And from a corporate perspective, a way to attach value to an idea.  Smart move, however, let us not forget that;

Value is in the perception of the beholder, and the ability of the system to be abused for other purposes is rife.

What was even more interesting was the claim from the custodians of innovation of the number of innovations that were in the “ever-growing pipeline” awaiting their turn at implementation. A measure, if you want, of “how innovative we are”,  as I said before in the perception of the beholder.

Like everybody else, I have a perception of innovation.  And it goes something like this.  If we look at some of the technology innovators of our time, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Grace Hopper, Time Berners-Lee, to name but a few I doubt that they had any of the above structure.  I contend instead that they operated in a world with a single focus in mind. And instead of the orderly controlled management of ideas, there was chaos. And out of this chaos like a phoenix from the flames, it all came together to the end product.

An idea in a repository is just that, an idea.  And more often than not, these fade into non-existence as each cycle more and more becomes part of the pile.

So my question is, are the innovations you have driven by passion, a prize at the end of the rainbow, or a desire to reward people not rewarded in the cause of business?