The Innovation Buzzword
Wikipedia defines a buzzword as “a word that has begun to be used in the wider society outside of its original context by nonspecialists who use the term vaguely or imprecisely. Labelling a term a “buzzword” often pejoratively implies that it is now used pretentiously and inappropriately by individuals with little understanding of its actual meaning who are most interested in impressing others by making their discourse sound more esoteric, obscure, and technical than it otherwise would be.”
Too often innovation has been largely reduced to buzzword status across our many sectors. Senior executives are very vocal in talking about innovation, however it all too often stops at the talking. When the talk does not translate to meaningful action leading to outcomes, innovation is a buzzword.
In spite of its buzzword status and the cynicism it is often met with by staff, it remains a word that is mandatory in corporate-speak. Innovation is spoken of in glowing terms of the potential it offers with insufficient focus given to the action required for it to happen. When this is happening, innovation is a buzzword.
We’ve all heard Senior executives spruik innovation and tell us that “we need to think differently” and that “we need to be challenged”, however when actual challenges come, very little changes in the modus operandi of dealing with them. We still default to the linear and structured approaches of the past. New and creative approaches are shunned and when this occurs, innovation is little more than a buzzword.
The use of “the innovation word” in many cases amounts to little more than a form of ‘bureaucratic chicanery’. When this occurs, words, glossy brochures, a new “portal” and talking about action, substitute for innovation itself. The Federal Govt’s now not so recent 2020 summit proved a all too common example of the “bureaucratisation of Innovation”. Lots of talk, lots of promotion, but very little action resulting.
When you can look under desks in organisations and see rolls of butcher paper containing post-it-notes full of ideas gathering dust, you know that innovation is a buzzword.
If we can put Innovation” into enough speeches, documents, ppt presentations and action plans though, we must then be doing innovation. Right?
In organisations where everything is first viewed through via lenses of risk and our patterns of past experience, it is very difficult to gain the permission required to undertake the thinking and experimenting needed for the innovation to happen.
Too often in large organisations, those more likely to challenge the status quo and attempt to do things differently are the ones most likely to be sidelined and dis-empowered. Often, it just does not pay to stick ones head above the parapet for fear of it being removed! When staff are not engaged and routinely working ON the business, innovation is just a buzzword.
Innovation does not have to be expensive. It does not have to be time-consuming. The belief that it must be so underpins a lack of understanding of how to drive it. There is no risk in temporarily organising the staff to lift their eyes from the operational and focus on innovation. The greatest risk lies in not making the time and space for them to do so.
Innovation needs to be Practical.
So, while those same issues and opportunities that were there last year and the year before, remain this year, we are still doing too much talking about innovation.
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