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Avoid Innovation (The Word) — Use Better Words Instead

Scott Berkun brilliantly notes that the word “innovation” has lost it’s meaning. Stop saying innovation – here’s why

Use better words instead. Often people mean one of 1) we want new ideas 2) we want better ideas, 3) we want big changes 4) we need to place big bets on new ideas. Great. Any of those short phrases are more powerful and specific than the i-word. Use them instead.

I guess this is a challenge in most software consultancies like Capgemini, which I work for. It’s a battlefield where reality and psychology meets the marketing department.

Looking at our own blog: 5 articles mention “innovation“, 6 mentions “innovative” (including this).

PS. While you are at ScottBerkun’s site, check out Asshole Driven Development (ADD) where he defines a lot of great acronyms including Cover Your Ass Engineering (CYAE), Development By Denial (DBD) and the title acronym.

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This entry was posted by Jesper Rønn-Jensen on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 20:28 (GMT-1) and is filed under Psychology, Web Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Avoid Innovation (The Word) — Use Better Words Instead”

  1. Carvoeiro in Portugal Says:
    August 28th, 2008 at 15:35 (GMT-1)

    Careful, its the I word :) Thanks for the link to Scott Berkun’s site, very good read also!

  2. Cubic zirconia Says:
    May 15th, 2009 at 09:56 (GMT-1)

    Most of the time the meaning of innovation remain unclear and it is not specific. Chances are it was abused in some occasions. Especially the time when my superior want to show off his authority, he always keep repeating I-word. Actually it seems so blank and weak with no solid content as backbone. But you have to accept it because he is the boss and you are the one bossed around.