Over the past 25 years I have worked in organisations dedicated to international development and innovation has always been a big buzz word, because of the implicit belief that innovation is what will create change. Google's useful Ngram database of word use finds that "innovation" mentions have reached an all-time high. But have we lost connection with the purpose behind innovation?  

I have been deeply uncomfortable with the term ‘innovation’ and how it is used, for a long while now. That is why I have spent some time reflecting on my experience and I have developed a concept for how to adopt an Innovator’s Mindset that addresses what I see as the current challenges with how the term is used. I believe this is relevant for everyone, whether you are in a formal leadership role, or whether you are striving to be more aware and present.

Let’s look at the challenges: First up is the challenge of trendiness. The danger with trendiness is that we stop really engaging with the root meaning, the purpose behind the concept and we use it as a quick win. 

Through my work, I have had ample opportunity to witness how often the very essence of innovation had been lost and had been replaced with an obsession for newness. Projects/initiatives would be developed that were positioned as the magic wand that would finally eradicate the challenges we were trying to address. Historically, innovation emerged from the testing of data against assumptions in science. In the context of complex social problems, just checking against data is not enough. Experience and evidence have also shown that it is not necessarily about the newness per se that creates the change. Above all we need to engage with the deep purpose behind innovation and apply it to the complexity of social problems. So how do we do this?

From my experience I know that when ‘innovation’ works, there are a few factors that come into play. Ideas emerge organically from the work, they emerge from deep listening to the people affected by the challenge we are trying to address. This means understanding what has worked, what hasn’t worked, and it also means sensing into what the underlying feelings and energies are that are not visible to the eye and not audible to the ear and nevertheless they are important information. Powerful change emerges, when we use all this traditional and ‘non-traditional’ data and we then carefully mould and adjust, using our minds, heart and intuition in equal measure. 

The other challenge is our impatience. Sometimes, we don’t need to innovate, sometimes we already know, but we have lost patience. And what we need is persistence, endurance, more time, and patience. If we listen carefully and deeply, we will hear that. And we will have the opportunity to not just jump on the bandwagon of innovation for the sake of it, but we will remember the purpose of innovation, which is to create change for the better. 

As leaders and as humans, wherever we are, whatever we do, adopting an innovator’s mindset then becomes a beautiful powerful practice to nurture our ability to keep seeing things as if they were new every time!

The ability to NEVER stop the practice of listening, never stop the practice of seeing. I believe that is our greatest responsibility as leaders, as humans. 

When we think we know, that is when we stop having an innovator’s mindset. That doesn’t mean that we don’t know a lot, it’s just that we know how important it is to expect to be surprised, to be curious, never to think ‘oh I know what is coming’, because we don’t.

If you want to learn more about how to adopt an Innovator’s Mindset, and learn about deep listening skills, subscribe to the Fierce Inspiration Email List. I will be sharing the first module of eight in my September newsletter.