Being a professional speaker, as I survey my competition, as well as the internet in general, there is a word that I come across a great deal, and that word is… “innovation.”
This is one of those words that is just getting over-used to the point ridiculousness. Regular readers of this blog know that I occasionally rant about overuse of words, such as “hope” and “excellence.” Well, here I go again.
I occasionally get told about a book or a speaker, and this mention will include the statement, “Justin, this book/speaker will change your life.” Well, good for them, but oh-so-subtly embedded in this glowing recommendation is the implication that my life, as it currently stands, stinks. Okay, that may be true, but I find it hard to believe that everyone else’s life stinks too. I’m willing to bet that there is a substantial number of people for whom change and innovation would constitute a loss or a demotion. There must be some happy people on this planet whose lives do not need to be changed. Innovation is not necessarily a good thing all the time.
This mantra of the need for innovation has gotten to be something of a religious movement. While I’m on the subject of religious movements, I would like to point out that the Catholic Church has been doing booming business for quite some time now, and they are the most un-innovative group you’ll ever want to see. Another good example of a non-innovation is the Coca-Cola Company. Does anyone here remember “new Coke”? It was innovative, and everyone hated it.
Digital natives, please note: there is a market for things that never change.
The Internet and the digital revolution in general offer me enough intellectual challenges everyday as it is. I really don’t need any extraneous innovation. Just to give you a close to home example: Typepad, the folks who host this blog, completely changed the user interface a week or two ago. Here I was, all set to post a blog I’d written, and instead of just hitting control V and posting and getting on with my day, all of sudden found I had to take half an hour to sit down and learn a whole new interface. Is the new interface better than the last one? Not that I can tell. Does my blog look any different? No. Did I lose some features in the old system that I really liked? Yes. Innovative? Yes. Customer happy? No.
The same thing happens on facebook. No matter what they do, they can’t leave success alone. They fiddle with the interface, causing a massive drop in productivity nationwide as people have to stop everything and learn the new system which, with the exception of the “hide” option, so far as I can tell, has not offered any truly improved service. It’s just harder to find the button you want.
There is another phrase I would like to present to you, which is “the Hawthorne effect.” This refers to the fact that if you make any change at all in a workplace, it doesn’t matter what that change is, you will see about two weeks of improved performance. After which, once everyone gets used to the new system (and they are no longer being observed by people monitoring the change), they go back to their normal pace of work. I’m convinced that some management consultants think that if we just make a change every two weeks this will be the ideal situation for productivity enhancement.
There is a lot to be said for constantly offering something new. There’s also a lot to be said for Norman Rockwell and Lawrence Welk, neither of whom died poor.
But, you still want innovation? Okay, here is something that nowadays is VERY innovative: take a good look at what you have always had to offer that is unique . . . that is so rare and wonderful that you should never ever change it. Appreciate it, and defend it from those who seek to make you into what you are not. Nowadays, the courage to stay the same is really different.
© Justin Locke
