Innovation suffers from many misconceptions in the business world. Perhaps the most common is that a disruptive innovation requires a big idea or an “aha” moment. Quite the contrary. Another is that innovation is the fun stuff. Ask anyone who’s brought an idea to successful fruition and you’ll quickly learn that the dopamine rush of a eureka moment is a distant memory buried in the long nights and weekends bringing an idea to life. Ideas are easy, innovation is painful and hard work.
The economic collapse has brought the innovation discussion to the forefront. I believe that as more and more organizations seek to incorporate innovation as a core competency, it will become better understood. And innovation is not a one size fits all proposition. It will be up to each organization to develop their own culture of innovation. They would be smart to start with a basic set of innovation principals. Here are a few that I like: