Imagine an executive team gathering to discuss its most urgent strategic priority: artificial intelligence. The CEO wants AI to become a new engine of growth. The CIO wants to deploy copilots. The COO sees opportunities to automate processes. The head of product wants AI-enabled offerings. The CHRO is worried about how AI will reshape work. Everyone agrees that AI is the future. Everyone agrees that the company needs to innovate. And everyone leaves the meeting talking about something different.
This is increasingly the real innovation problem inside large organizations. We use one word, “innovation,” to describe fundamentally different kinds of work. Adopting a technology. Improving a process. Launching a product. Creating a business model. Transforming an organization. Responding to a crisis. Everyone uses the same word and assumes alignment. There isn’t any.
