Innovation Is Subjective
One thing you learn in a job focused on innovation is that innovation is highly subjective.
If you're serving a client with a specific idea of how they want to innovate and you desire their money, sometimes you just accept their understanding of innovation as the operating definition and you help them achieve their subjective goals.
Other times, (the better times), you have the opportunity to challenge that definition and co-create it within the context of your work together.
If it's YOU who is trying to build a specific future state, either for yourself or for others, it might be your perception of innovation that matters most.
However, it still needs filtering through the lens of society and the people who will live/work/play with your innovation... so it's never ONLY your perspective that drives innovation, no matter how profound your ideas may be.
And maybe the best times are when clients value your subjective view so much that they ask you to think & innovate in your own way on their behalf.
But in the realms of subjectivity, we sometimes get lost in the balance between theory and practice.
What is innovation if it's never applied? If it's not practical? Is the best idea that's never delivered worse than the worst idea that still moves the needle?
Innovate too far into the inscrutable ether of futurism and you've laid a wet blanket over your sparks of genius.
Innovate too closely to today's paradigm and you're incrementally changing things instead of finding powerful new ways forward.
There's a sweet spot for every innovator in every ecosystem, and it's a dance of you, your stakeholder(s), a client or end user, the broader world around you, and more.
I used to get caught up trying to sell my idea of innovation in scenarios where I was better off selling what a client would buy.
Eventually I recognized that my own innovation frame wasn't always effective for the situations I was in, and I needed a more adaptive approach to bringing big ideas to life.
If you find yourself in a similar space, one of these options might be the headspace you need to operate in:
Find people whose subjective interpretation aligns with yours and build forward together,
Innovate by yourself on your own terms,
Acknowledge that you are a temporary steward for the "innovation frame" of others, or
Some other thing I haven't thought of, it is subjective after all
Innovation is subjective. Pick the frame that works for you, square your feet, and make change.
