Innovation and creativity are decent buzz words. There is an impressive industry that capitalizes on them, and enables growth accordingly. But in 1899, Charles H. Duell, the Director of the US patent office, said "Everything that can been invented, has been invented." Was he making one of the greatest foolish utterances of modern history, or was he alluding to deeper channels? Whatever he was seeing when he made that statement, there is a deeper truth to be considered. "The more things change, the more they stay the same" ("plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"): Whatever we think we need in life and however we think we need to get it, the basics remain the same across cultures and through time. However much we innovate, however creative we are, we are a product of our time, and the models we use are time bound. Thus, this is an adaptive era as opposed to a mechanistic era, and we often specialise in finding ways to help people to adapt more quickly. That is great - but it is not all there is.
To do more, we must consider the structure: the way we know what we know, the way we learn what we learn. We also need to consider the implications for the way we know what we know and the ways we learn what we learn. For that we must be willing to re-invent: to re-invent ourselves, re-invent our professional lives, re-invent the way we perceive the world, and to encourage our customers to re-invent themselves as needed. At only that point do we see with new eyes, feel afresh and gain actual new perceptions - not just recycled or repackaged old ones. Innovation and creativity are great, but they can mask small changes (re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic).
Are you a reformer or a revolutionary? If you want your ship to enjoy new ports, you may need to be sure your innovation, creativity and indeed re-invention are addressing big enough issues.
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