Changing behavior is the new killer app

Innovation is implementing something new, which is realized by another as having value. This isn’t creativity. People can be wonderfully creative over and over until they finally produce an innovation recognized by another person, or a whole community of people, as indeed valuable.

Lytro has introduced a real game-changer in the camera market by creating a consumer-priced camera that captures the entire depth of field, allowing you, the viewer, to choose the point of focus. Try it – it’s pretty neat. Cars become faster, more efficient, or more intuitive. Smartphones, smarter. But the real innovative in innovation these days may be going on in the consumer-collaborations between online community curators and architects, and their users.

Change is hard. Facebook knows you are not going to like their latest attempt to inspire and streamline your experience. But they are provoking you intentionally to change your behavior, improve their ability to harvest data from you, or make you a more accessible target to potential online vendors. Consider, each time Facebook adds a graph search feature or changes your user profile display you freak out. Then you post about how annoying the new interface is. Then you get familiar with it. And then you use it. You change your behavior to adapt to this new innovative environment or feature set introduced and you change your behavior.

Who decided your were going to adopt the new profile banner, or categorize your friends as “Close” or “Acquaintances” – you or Facebook?