Peter Denning and Robert Dunham have an intriguing article in the May 2006 issue of Communications of the ACM, “Innovation as Language Action.” Getting to the conclusion, which is not entirely fair to the authors, we find these points:

  • Innovation occurs when a group or community adopts a new practice
  • Invention and innovation are different skill sets
  • The language action framework helped identify seven practices that constitute the innovation set
    They are briefly:

    1. Sensing possiblities
    2. Envisioning new realities
    3. Offering new outcomes
    4. Executing plans and actions
    5. Adopting new practice
    6. Sustaining integration
    7. Leading
  • Anyone can lean the innovation skill by mastering the seven practices.