Would Innovation By Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?
Mobile tools and other emerging technologies play such vital roles in shaping how people live today, and cut across from the private sector into government operations, including the intelligence and national security communities. But in the quest to leverage such developments, can the efforts really be called "innovation?" guest blogger Jason Thomas asks. He has another word for it.
Over the past week, I have thought a lot about innovation. In part because I’m preparing for my upcoming panel discussion on innovation at the AFCEA/INSA Intelligence Summit next week, and in part because I’m troubled by the seemingly pervasive use of the word “innovation” as a solution to many of our intelligence collection and analysis challenges.
I hate the word innovation in that context. It's overused, tired and stiff. And yes, I know it’s in my job title. But, it's not really what I do. I don't innovate. I think of exciting things to try and then I try them. I test new ideas, develop cool ways to solve problems and generally spend my time creating. Perhaps plainly evident, but I don't separate what I do creatively at work from what I do creatively at home. It all runs together. And I don't think of it as innovation. I think of it as an inventive lifestyle. A way of being. I am very mindful of creativity. As a community, we must be more mindful of creativity.
But too many times we get caught up in the new, next best thing. It’s exciting to think about autonomous mini-UAVs, armor that heals itself, 3-D printing and other technologies seemingly drawn from the pages of science fiction. It’s what most of the national security community thinks of when we think of inventive ways to tackle intelligence and national security problems. Equally important are those mundane technologies like mobile phones, wearable fitness trackers and the like; commonplace technologies repurposed in clever ways to meet national security requirements.
For example, what did you do first this morning? Every morning, before getting out of bed, millions of people reach for their smartphones before doing anything else. Isn't it odd how we find ourselves seduced by technology and yet repulsed by the hold it has over us? Mobile technology now plays a key role in shaping how we live, from how we remember to how we date (and maybe even fall in love.) Technology has snuck up on us. And because it's been so surreptitious, we don’t understand its cultural and societal impact.
And there’s the opportunity for creative thinking. There’s the opening.
What can we derive from the universal attachment people have for their mobile devices? In what ways can we take advantage of the encompassing hold that apps like Tinder, Kik and Yik Yak have on the population? Can we exploit that behavior? How? Figuring out those answers isn’t necessarily “innovation.” It’s paying attention. And perhaps that’s what innovation has come to signify: Paying attention to the world around us, understanding cultural influences that technology creates in populations around the planet and finding crafty ways to use them to enhance our national security.
Don’t get me wrong. I am enthusiastic about emerging technologies. Trust me when I say I want my driverless car. But when people ask me how we can be more innovative, I usually tell them to look around. Find a problem. Attempt a solution. Yep, you might fail. Yep, you might sometimes look dumb. But, eventually you’ll hit on something that will revolutionize the way our community works. That’s innovation.
So, look around. Be creative. Try something new with an old technology. Let's build some cool things together.
Jason Thomas is chief of innovation for Thomson Reuters Special Services. He is an internationally recognized expert on the illicit use of technology and has spent most of his adult life tracking hackers and terrorists around the web. The views expressed are his alone and do not necessarily represent the views of Thomson Reuters.
