Innovation: The Difference Between Good and Great

by Randy Blankenhorn
5.27.08

 I have been to two separate meetings on innovation in the past week, and it has me thinking about what we mean by that term.  In the proposed vision for the region, CMAP identifies three cross-cutting issues:  sustainability, equity and innovation.  I find that part of our problem is that when we think about innovation, we mostly think of it in business and technology terms.  We tend to do the same with sustainability, thinking about it only from the environmental perspective. 

These three issues have to be examined much more broadly.  Just as the economic perspective is an important aspect of sustainability, CMAP must look at the role that innovation can play in all of our agency’s functional areas.  We have opportunities to look at innovative ways to address transportation, housing, environmental, education, and land use issues from a comprehensive and regional perspective. 

That is really the purpose of GO TO 2040.  Our region and agency have an opportunity to look beyond the ways that we have traditionally addressed quality-of-life issues.  We need to bring different ideas and different people to the table as we look at the future of Northeastern Illinois and the challenges that we face.  Because of its assets that have been built up over time, the region is positioned to be good, but good isn’t enough.  The difference between good and great is innovation, and shouldn’t “great” be the future of metropolitan Chicago?

One of the other conversations revolved around how to attract innovative people to northeastern Illinois.  We are looking for what one speaker called “hyphenated people.”  That is, people who look beyond the borders of their chosen field.  What innovative people are looking for is a good educational system, arts, entertainment, and communities that are real places.  In other words, the same things that we all want.  It is up to all of us in this GO TO 2040 comprehensive regional planning process to have the courage to be bold, to be innovative in finding solutions to our challenges.  And the question that was always at the back of my mind in these meetings was, “What happens if we don’t?”