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# [Brainshot] Are You Stuck In The Innovation Paradox?
- URL: https://www.kevinrichard.ch/brainshot-are-you-stuck-in-the-innovation-paradox/
- Published: 2020-01-31T16:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2020-01-31T16:14:59.000Z
- Description: Aiming for the butterfly effect you can’t see coming.
- Author: Kevin Richard
- Tags: Brainshot, Innovation, Systems Thinking, Design

## Aiming for the butterfly effect you can’t see coming.

An **“innovation”* is ****a change (shift) in a system**, where **\[something\]* at its fringe becomes mainstream. For this reason, an **\[innovative thing\]* can ****only be assessed as such afterward** (once the change occurred), by looking in the (near) ****past**.

Therefore, an **“innovation process”* should be one that looks for strategies to enable interconnections between parts (niches) of the system, which ****might*** enable them to become mainstream (ref. [**Cultivating System Change*](https://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-System-Change-Practitioners-Companion-ebook/dp/B075GX4Z9Q?ref=kevinrichard.ch), Anna Birney 2017; [**Platform Strategies*](https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/toolkit/?ref=kevinrichard.ch), The Platform Design Toolkit).

> ****Think about this:** *throughout history, for each “successful” innovation — read a practice, a technology,a product, etc. that became mainstream — how many never reached a point of influence of the mainstream?* ****Countless** *, that’s for sure! (ref.* [*the survivorship bias*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship%5Fbias?ref=kevinrichard.ch)*)*

For all of you working on innovative *\[things\]*, that’s the paradox you’re living in: *innovation is about a future state, a change, but the* ****measure*** *of its “innovative impact” lies in the past.* Your **“innovation superpower”* should be one that helps you **observe emerging changes** in the system (ref. [**“Monitor, not measure”*](https://twitter.com/AnnasQuestions/status/1214509857119838208?s=20&ref=kevinrichard.ch), Anna Birney).

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b5/84/b5842abb-69ac-4d01-a1a1-0948682b5abb/content/images/2020/01/CleanShot-2020-01-30-at-17.31.59@2x.png)

## What are your thoughts about this?

What do you do to monitor the state of change in the system you’re aiming to change/impact? How do you handle this way of thinking with traditional management? Do you **feel* this paradox at all?

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