Innovation is defined as “the adoption of a new practice into a community.” Invention is the “creation of new ideas, artifacts, processes, or methods.” An invention can only be viewed as an innovation when it is adopted into practice. While many believe that inventions are the main causes of innovations, I personally would like to label this belief as the “invention myth,” referring to those that seek innovation by stimulating creativity. Creating new ideas, however, is very different from adopting them into practice. The “process myth” is a concept proposed in many business innovation books. It is the “belief that innovations are the results of processes that can be managed.” While this myth is a compelling way to drive innovation, this method of following a logical order of steps does not always produce innovation. Neither the invention or process myths reliably produce innovation.

Adopting a new practice into a community requires a clear view of the desired outcome of innovation. The outcome should be defined with the following aspects in mind:

* Community. The adoption of innovation must fit with existing practices of the people in the community, target a reasonably sized community, and offer a degree of change that the community can handle.

* Practices, Performance, and Skills. Both the community’s practices and the practices of innovation must be defined, keeping in mind that practices are:

* Recurrent actions that have outcomes

* Performed and embodied by an individual or group, at different skill levels

* Subject to breakdown

* Inclusive of mental, emotional, and body states

* Embedded deeply in communities

* Adoption. The commitment of the community to consider a new practice, adopt it for the first time, and sustain it over a period of time.

* Success. The innovator is most likely to be successful when he is highly skilled in the community of practice to be changed (domain), influencing others (social interaction), and engaging with the environment (opportunities).