People hear the word innovation and think something technical. Somehow, we’re conditioned to think that innovation equals STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math.

Innovation is more than technology…

You can innovate what I call the three Ps:

• A philosophy – how we think; our belief system
• A process – the way we do something
• A product – an item we use

Here are some examples of each…

• Innovating a philosophy. When The Secret came out, Christians immediately recognized many of the themes from the Bible. The Bible, the sacred text that Christians use to guide their lives, existed well before The Secret came out. However, The Secret took an existing philosophy and made it fresh and new.

• Innovating a process. I did not invent podcasting. Someone else did. But I improved this process by applying a profit angle to podcasting. While the inventors came with this new way of sharing your audio and video files online, I took podcasting and started to talk about ways in which to make money from this new way of sharing audio and video files online.

• Innovating a product. The way to clean a floor is to fill a bucket with water and use a mop. To remove the excess water from the mop, you either wrung the cloth-part with your hands, or you wrung it out in the bucket. What a messy mess! Then came Swiffer. It revolutionized how people cleaned their floors. Instead of a bucket and mop, you pushed what looked a broom across the floor that contained a bottle of solution on the handle. Swiffer didn’t invent mopping; it innovated it.

An inventor is someone who is the first to come up with a new philosophy, process, or product…

Most of us will never invent anything. Instead, we can become innovators. An innovator is someone who improves an existing philosophy, process, or product.