Is Innovation Enough?

A few years ago, some unconventional universities like the African Leadership University, Minerva and SingularityU began to push traditional higher education's reset buttons. These universities' common visions are to create a new set of leaders and professionals that can think creatively, solve practical problems, and innovate. These universities have delivered. They are still paying on their vision of helping learners learn differently by giving them tools to do today's jobs and tomorrow's jobs. To solve the problems of today and future issues anticipated.However, as an educator, I started reflecting recently on my own former education and how it has influenced my definition of "Innovation" in the classroom. I also reflected on how I am helping students innovate through my class sessions. In the last few days, I have been asking myself if I am only helping my students create new things or I am helping them both to create new things and make them know that it is okay not to create new things at all times. Maybe I should also help them interpret the existing innovation futuristically and "adaptably innovate" with solutions that already exist.As educators (whether in the traditional universities or the new unconventional models), while we are so passionate to teach the new learners to think creatively, think critically and produce innovatively, we frequently neglect the fact that "innovating adaptably" is as essential as "innovating" itself. I began to infuse this thought pattern into my class tools recently.For example, Elon Musk's creation of Tesla Electric Automobiles is an "Adaptable Innovation" of the already existing "Automobile" Innovation by integrating (Electric Energy + Automobile) which came as on offshoot of change in times and seasons. Another result of thinking "adaptably innovative" is producing a mobile phone with a camera. "Mobile phone" was a separate innovation, and a "camera" is another independent innovation, but the integration of a camera on a mobile phone is a result of adaptable innovative thinking.My recent reflection made me discover that there are already millions of existing innovations today because we are raising more innovators which I think is incredible. However, I believe that these innovations existing in silos can add more values to the society if we re-imagine our education to include curriculum that teaches "adaptable innovation". This will raise a generation of innovators who are not just interested in creating new things from the ground up but merging, integrating, furthering and combining two or three already existing innovation to develop new products and services.Adaptable Innovators will be relevant across all society changes, and they will continue to pivot into new realities quickly. I guess Micheal Hammer was correct after all when he said, "don't innovate but rather, obliterate". Let us raise innovators but much more importantly, "Adaptable Innovators".NB: These are thoughts after having my morning coffee, and I look forward to your engagement as we create new intellectual horizons for new learners.Oluwaseun David ADEPOJU