Do innovation methods get in the way of innovation?

I have gone through innovation offsites, workshops, training.  I have made reports on innovation to my bosses.  I have helped clients innovate with different processes - all claiming to be the surefire way to find innovation...Most of these experiences were very valuable, and even exciting, but I sometimes find it disturbing that innovation doesn't always happen when the process says it will.

Sometimes, the insight happens when everyone isn't looking.  Sometimes, the innovation occurs despite the innovation process. There are some discernable frameworks and structures to the process of identifying new approaches then commercializing them, and most well-thought out processes for innovation are helpful...but is there a be all and end all method for innovation?  And can an orderly process for innovation sometimes get in the way? 

Innovation requires almost a kind of subversive thinking - an approach that assumes that the way things are is not the best they could be.  Can someone rebel from orthodoxy and think subversively (innovatively) if they too closely follow a formula?

By trying to capture innovation in a cage, are we taking some of it's power away?

What do you think?  What is your approach to finding a better way to do something?  How do you solve problems?  How do you get your organizations to think innovatively?

Can innovation be truly new?

I recently posted the following on my marketing and innovation blog:  

"Innovation is needed now more than ever and companies, governments and organizations are trying to figure out how to become more innovative, and more successful at innovating."

But can the new thrive without the old?  

Once the first adopters of an innovation have latched on to something, can the rest of the world catch on without some form of help?  Or asGeoffrey Moore in his excellent book, Crossing the Chasm might ask, "How can we move from Early Adopters of an innovation to the Early Majority?"

There's an interesting paradox here:  most marketers would agree that something completely new is a difficult sell...even though we are all in the business of selling something new.

In other words, innovation needs to be new, without being new.

Do we need a bridge from the old way of doing things to a new way of doing things?  If so, what is that bridge and how do we build it?"

This seems like a logical place to begin a good discussion about the new and the old - and how they fit together.  What do you think?

Isn't it about time for clothes to innovate?

As someone who is not in the fashion industry, but thoroughly enjoys finely made clothes, I have sometimes wondered if clothing is ripe for some serious innovation.  The modern men's suit for example, though an ingenious way to make men of many shapes and sizes look very powerful, formal and handsome, often seems to be better designed for a nineteenth century English gentleman's lifestyle than for a twenty-first century man.

Wool suits are often too warm for buildings with central heat, easily wrinkled in a car or airplane seat, difficult to wear while bicycling to work.  Even the placement of pockets is better designed for horseback riding than carrying PDA's or cell phones.  Can there a different model for formal or business clothing?

I came across something that seemed almost revolutionary to me 

recently.  A company called Rapha is offering a new jacket for bicyclists that is tailored and constructed to look like something someone could wear to a meeting or to a restaurant.  However it performs like a high-tech touring jacket with an inner layer of wind and water resistant fabric.  It doesn't look cheap and it isn't.  At $750 it seems like something you could only buy at an exclusive men's shop like Barneys New York- not at the local Sports Authority.  But if it functions just like a high quality blazer - is it worth the price?  Will people pay that much for a bicycle jacket?  If I can replace a suit with it, does that make it worth it?

It does look different than your typical 3 button suit, but I wonder, can this be the germ of innovation to come?  If, for example, bycycle commuting becomes more popular than it is today, are we looking at the shape of things to come in the 21st century?

Or perhaps more important - how does innovation happen in fashion?  Is fashion short on innovative thinking beyond the drama and excitment of fashion shows?  Are we entering a time where new ideas might have a chance of transforming what we wear and how we wear it?  

I asked someone who actually knows what she is talking about - and has spent quite a bit of time in the fashion business, Jeanne Steen, to discuss her thoughts about where fashion innovation is and where it is going.  Ms. Steen is a former managing editor at Elle Magazine, currently the owner of Figaro Parisian Interiors and is a very stylish person in general.  

Jeanne, what do you think?

Welcome to the Innovation Discussion

Innovation goes far beyond the laboratory - far beyond Silicon Valley startups.  Innovation is less an activity as it is a lifestyle or way of thinking.  The best innovators are able to change their frame of reference, see a system, a process or a problem in a way that few others can - then find ways to manipulate, change and ultimately improve what they see in ways never before contemplated.

How often does innovation happen?  Whenever organizations, businesses and communities are active, growing, and joyful, there tends to be a lot of innovation going on.  When there isn't much innovation, interactions are low energy, margins shrink, and life becomes less and less pleasant.

I've been exploring innovation, how it works and how best to apply it to new product development, new markets and positioning of companies both through my consulting practice and through my blog:  http://bransonpowers.blogspot.com.  It has become apparent, though, that my single point of view will only reveal so much.  In order to understand and increase the amount of innovation in business and in our society, we need to engage the insights of a broad range of innovators. 

We need to hear from more than just the inventors or the consultants helping companies innovate - though their insites and examples are invaluable.  Instead, I hope we can engage a discussion with executives, leaders and practitioners in many walks of life - to find examples of innovation everywhere - and discover how we can build more of an innovation lifestyle throughout society.