One of the questions proposed in LRNT 524 was: “Is all change necessarily innovative?”
I found this to be an interesting question when looking at the word innovation itself. To be innovative there is a need to be creative and to introduce products or ideas that use new methods and are advanced or original. This word seems to be a popular buzzword in marketing “new” products that are simply doing the same thing over again.
Neumann (2014) discusses change as moving from one defined point to another. To Neumann, knowing that path and involving individuals, teams or organizations allows management of the transition with a successful goal in mind. In education this could involve implementing the move from one LMS system to a new LMS system and having a path in mind. The new system is new to the organization but there is a specific implementation goal.
To contrast this, innovation doesn’t have a specific goal and direction. To illustrate this, the same implementation of an LMS can be used. The innovation in this would be looking at actual success of using the new system and its functionality. There is no specific success metric and the different ways that the tool can be used will themselves be innovative. In that way there is innovation associated with the change but they are in fact different.
Looking at this there is a definite connection between change and innovation but while most innovation involves change, not all change needs to involve innovation.
Change vs Innovation. (2015, December 01). Retrieved from https://www.wazoku.com/change-vs-innovation/
January 19, 2019 at 6:44 pm
Hi Jeff!
I would absolutely echo you sentiments. No change is not a derivative of innovation. I look back at the sprint designs I have done at work and I think about the solutions we have come up with to solve our complex problems (Knapp, Kowitz & Zeratsky, 2016). Some solutions ended up being not much more than info-graphics, course modules, or videos. These solutions are definitely not new, but definitely made an impact for positive change. Metrics for positive verses negative change can be difficult to measure, however over time we did see the uptake we were looking to solve. In terms of these problems, would you consider it innovative to use existing solutions in a new context to solve these problems? Or perhaps innovative is strictly as Websters defines it as “a new idea, method, or device” (Merriam Webster, 2019).
Knapp, J., Kowitz, B., Zeratsky, J. (2016). Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. Simon and Schuster. doi:1501121774, 9781501121777
Merriam Webster. (n.d.). Innovation. Retrieved January 19, 2019, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation