The team at Ode Management asked me to introductory video for their audience of event planners, speaker bureaus and agents. The topic was innovation and my mission was to keep it casual and brief, with a target length of two minutes. I guess I was too excited. On my first take, I overshot that goal by 10 minutes and needed to re-record it. However, I couldn’t bring myself to delete this though! Instead, I wanted to share it with you here.

This video was meant to introduce the important differences between innovation and iteration. It’s a casual, not fully finalized in post, but the point is, I hope, helpful, innovation is changing behaviors every day and everywhere. It’s what we do about it now that shapes the future and our role in it.

We can’t simply sit by and watch evolution happen around us or to us. We can’t sit frozen in a state of future shock. We need to not only react, we need to see things in ways that allow us to move in productive and also new directions. It takes a shift in perspective to see then do things differently. Otherwise, many of us iterate when we think we are innovating.

What’s the difference?

Iteration is doing the same things better.

Innovation is doing new things that creates new value. It changes behavior.

Disruption is changed behavior that does new things and evening makes the old things obsolete.

We can’t simply do what we’ve always done because it’s the “go to,” gut-driven reaction. This is a time of disruption on all fronts. Sometimes legacy perspectives and personal beliefs prevent us from seeing change and its potential because we see it through a lens of what and who we are. That moment is defined by the past. And, that’s what make change, and innovation, difficult.

This topic, our times, the opportunities and challenges we face, all served as the inspiration for this little video.

I hope it helps you. Thank you for watching (and maybe sharing!)

Brian Solis is principal analyst and futurist at Altimeter, a Prophet company, world renowned keynote speaker, and 7x best-selling author. His latest book, X: Where Business Meets Design, explores the future of brand and customer engagement through experience design. Invite him to speak at your next event.

Please read X, The Experience When Business Meets Design or visit my previous publications

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