The Difference Between Innovation and Creativity

I've seen some people get really worked up about this. (I guess we should admire the desire for clarity!) Still, it seems an important distinction. We might know what creativity is, but what's innovation? How are they different?

Let's start with innovation:

Definitions abound. Here are just a few, gathered from talks, from the web, from dictionaries.

Innovation is...

...what happens when creativity has a bottom line
...the conversion of knowledge or ideas into a benefit
...invention + exploitation
...the process that transforms ideas into commercial value
...people creating value by implementing new ideas
...a new method, idea, or product
...a new product, process or service that is discontinuous from prior practice and yields new avenues for solving problems and fulfilling an organization's mission
...a change that produces more-than-marginally better results

These seem disparate, but they share common elements:

...what happens when creativity has a bottom line
...the conversion of knowledge or ideas into a benefit
...invention + exploitation
...the process that transforms ideas into commercial value
...people creating value by implementing new ideas
...a new method, idea, or product
...a new product, process or service that is discontinuous from prior practice and yields new avenues for solving problems and fulfilling an organization's mission
...a change that produces more-than-marginally better results

Looking at these en masse, we have ready blueprint for how to understand innovation:

It's a two-part definition. Innovation is making something new that creates value. Innovation is the combination of creativity and critical thinking. It's the creative work of generating novelty, and the critical thinking necessary to measure the value of that creative work.

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