Scott Berkun ran a session on The Myths of Innovation, an exploration and conversation of the subject of his new book. He wrote another great book, The Art of Project Management which came out last year. Mostly he asked a lot of interesting questions, which the very interested and engaged audience discussed. Here are four Myths of Innovation Scott Identified

1. Innovation is always desirable
2. Innovation just happens
3. There is a single method for innovation
4. People like it when you innovate

A general discussion followed, touching on these points:

Which would you rather have: success without innovation or failure with innovation? Most people, and businesses, would choose the former, I think -- but innovation is thought highly of, and seemingly for its own sake.

Kevin Kelly brought up Gregory Bateson's definition of innovation: Innovation is a difference that makes a difference. Someone added that innovation triggers and enables other things. He also said that there are many examples in biology of a total lack of innovation, such as cockroaches, horseshoe crabs and snails. These animals have stable ecosystems that don't change very much, and thus their longevity. In systems that change rapidly, evolution is also rapid.

We argued for a while whether innovations *must* be successful to be considered innovations. And the distinction between progress, innovation and success.

We talked for a while about the "Eureka" moments that have become historical fictions -- the apple dropping on Isaac Newton's head, Archimedes in the bathtub -- and how these things are just myths, when in reality years and years and years of experimentation leads up to most discoveries. Same thing with the iPod and all of the Steve Jobs failures that never make it out into the public. And then the Steve Jobs and Edisons of the world, who are figureheads of innovation but really run large enterprises that collaborate to create innnovations.

Someone said that the hardest thing about innnovation is people, and we all agreed. People are resistant to change, indeed fear change.

And someone else said there has to be a tradeoff between innnovation and standardization. Innnovations need a stable base off of which to build. There was a brief discussion of Deep vs. Shallow innovation, which, unfortunately I did not record.

Next: Paul Saffo on How to Be Your Own Futurist

LINK | 8:33 AM | TB

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