The word 'innovation', and the corresponding words 'innovative' and 'to innovate', are among the overused, words in the business lexicon. Everyone wants innovation and wants to be innovative, but few can really define it. Ask 10 people for their definitions and they will give you 10 different answers. One thing is certain, however, innovation, whatever it is, is good. There are no bad connotations!

This situation is not helped by all of the noise in the marketplace. Virtually every consulting or services company touts their wares as innovative or as a way to become innovative. Everything from PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) to TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) is so touted.

To understand what innovation truly is, it is necessary to understand the fundamental process of how new things are introduced into the world and become adopted every day by real people who, in turn, change what they do, how they behave, what they feel and and how they collaborate withothers.

This section presents several perspectives on this to convey an the innovation process and how it can be adapted and adopted for exceptional personal and organization results.