What do I mean? Tools are neutral – they are only become good or bad through action. Our strategies can be good or bad. Our goals can be good or bad. The vehicles that help us execute our strategies and achieve our goals are neither.

Here’s a case in a point – a brilliant discussion of the uses of powerpoint – it is worth your time to go through it (it’s fast):

This raises an important point: the slides are not the presentation. Instead of attacking powerpoint, we should be attacking people that choose to make bad presentations. Well, maybe we should be trying to help them improve, actually. In any case, the problem is not with the tool, it is with the user.

Innovation is the same – it is a neutral tool. When we encourage people to innovate, this is another case of mistaking the tool for the goal. Innovation isn’t inherently good. We can use it to further good strategies that are designed to make the world better, or we can use to pursue bad strategies that are designed to enrich some at the expense of others.

Either way, the choice is yours.