Same is true for the "church" in 2006

A great article from Fast Company Magazine on the the subject of innovation in business reaching consumers. This should also be true for churches reaching the unsaved, unchurched and the dechurched.

One of my personal core values , creativity is one of those things that is at the core of who I am and what I do. The church needs to be the most innovative and creative places on Earth at reaching those outside the church.

The italics are mine.

Expand Your Innovation Horizons

by Richard Watson

From Fast Company Magazine

Companies (Churches) must think more radically while still pursuing incremental innovations.

Too many companies (churches) emphasize low-risk innovations that aim to incrementally extend their existing businesses (church members).

Most innovations fail and it’s easy to see why. They are expected. They are unimaginative, boring, and fail to excite or fill any real need. Indeed, most so-called innovations aren’t innovative. They are mundane line extensions to existing products and services that have no currency with cynical, time-starved customers (those outside the church). So why do companies (churches) keep churning out me-too innovations (we keep doing what everyone else is doing, we exhaust the same ideas) that have no magic or address problems (answering the right questions and meeting the right needs in the context of their communities) that have been adequately met elsewhere?

I think part of the problem is that most companies (churches) put most of their innovation effort into what I’d call horizon-one type innovations. These are low-risk innovations that aim to incrementally extend the existing business (church attenders). They usually make sense internally (church business meetings staff meetings, and board meeting) but most customers (potential church attenders) can do without marginal innovations...(read more)