Getting to Innovation

FIVE

Constructing Conceptual Maps forInnovation Challenges

While working with a client on a complex set of potential innovation challenges, I was asked to provide a rationale for the final list of challenge statements I would present to management. As I evaluated the challenges the client submitted, it occurred to me that I was limited by the processing capacity of my brain. Specifically, I had to deal with my cognitive abilities to juggle—somewhat simultaneously—multiple concepts, the meanings of those concepts, how these “clusters of meaning” might fit together to make sense for client objectives and align with them, the various ways these clusters might fit together, and the order of priority among the clusters. All of that is a pretty tall ...