It is time for responsible innovation!

We are living in an innovative world with endless possibility’s! That you can easily realize if you have a look at for example what an evolution the information and telecommunication industry has made in the last 20 years. Back then you could not fit you mobile phone in your pocket. Nowadays you can do that and not only call somebody. The possibilities of things you can do with your mobile phone are endless. But is that innovation? What does that actually mean “to innovate”? Does everything need to be faster, smaller, more efficient?

 Faster, why does everything needs to be faster? People seem to be in a constant hurry. As if they actually believe in climate change and think that our time on earth is running out.  For sure all those new technologies bring good things as well. The gas usage of cars is constantly decreasing and more and more electrical cars appear on the streets. A lot of diseases we could not treat in the past can be cured today or at least the patient is given more time to live. All initialized by the constant urge of people to change things and innovate them.

To me innovation means to make the world a better place with the knowledge we have. As mentioned in the examples above, we are already doing that. But we do not take the advantage

which those innovations give us.  Because we make everything faster one should think that at the end of the day there should be time left. Time to think but it seems that one’s one innovation is nearly done we already start something new.  People innovate themselves into a “flow”. A flow in where there is no time left.  Time to reflect on things. Time to take a look at what you actually created. A reason could be that reflection and turning back is scary. Maybe people do not want to think. Maybe they like the routine in their flow of innovation. That´s where innovation loses its magic to me.  Where it does not make the world a better place anymore. That´s why I think that there is need of innovating innovation. Innovation where people think about what needs to be changed.  Where there is time to reflect on the results of the innovation process. I say it is time for responsible innovation.