When you think of innovation, the first thing that comes to mind is often a big, complicated idea. Something is really innovative if it does this, without doing that, while still doing this other thing. Does that sound about right?
In reality, true innovation is a simple thing – one single idea that does one focused thing. If it does too many things, it gets confusing. More aspects to an idea are often just more things that can go wrong or need to be fixed. Good innovation is a single thing that works smoothly (or can be easily fixed) and that can be managed by regular people.
So when you’re being innovative, start small. Find one focused thing to change, and tackle that. As the architect Mies van der Rohe would say, “Less is more.” And most of the time, innovation is no exception.
