So, you want to innovate?
In 1636, Henry Burton, a church of England Minister, had his ears cut and was sentenced to imprisonment after being accused of innovating!
In Vocabulary of Innovation, I talked about how innovation had a negative meaning for most of the history of the word’s existence. Now, consider the different ways an innovator was characterized by important figures in history:
● The young and the poor (found in writings of Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Bacon, and Comte)
● The dissatisfied and maladjusted (Barnett)
● The frustrated (William Ogburn, Abbott Usher, and Joseph Rossman)
● The low social status class (Linton)
● The deviants (Rogers)
In one form or the other, all of these characterizations represent those who opposed the existing social order of the time.
Today, given the largely positive meaning of the word, the innovator is a genius, an original, an eccentric. And, innovation is organizational, social, and national too.
The adjectives and characterizations have changed over time, but the spirit remains the same. That is, changing the way things are and make progress to a better state of being.
Such transformation in meaning has happened over centuries, but the principle remains the same. The mutation of the meaning and social value of a phenomenon that is collectively viewed a certain way can, and often does, evolve with the changing social order of the time.
Are there things or issues whose time has come for their meaning to change?