I spotted this question on Linkedin and thought I’d repost here to get your responses.

What’s more valuable, being awesome of being innovative? I’m sure most people can tell you what’s awesome but can’t tell you what’s innovative. There’s a reason for this.

Innovation has lost it’s definition, everyone has their own definition. Because innovation is really a matter of perception, what’s innovative to one person is not for another. Ex. FaceTime is innovative here but not in Japan. This creates a problem with defining innovation and ultimately applying it the world over.

The world is becoming more interconnected and the assumption is that there should/will be more ‘innovation’. Innovation has always been here, it’s a fundamental human process. The only difference now is that more people will become aware of it and might be encouraged to do it because interconnectedness creates more opportunities. But more likely a lot of crap is going to be created and lot less of what really matters is not going to be created.

Yet the crap that doesn’t matter actually serves to create the stuff that does, because someone will be dissatisfied and will me motivated to do something better. ‘Less is more’ will never be more important. We’ll institute innovation as a matter of ‘being’ yet it will be taken to extremes. The word innovation will cease to make sense and won’t be able to differentiate. Being awesome is the new innovation. Does what you do matter to people?

Bottom line: Let’s change the question to where do we want innovation to go? The intent behind it is what’s going/needs to change.

Let it rip, what do you really think?