I have no idea what this means. But basically, yes.

The message of Day 1 at Dreamforce (the Salesforce technology conference attended by 150,000 fine folks) is that “everyone is an innovator."

But not really.

Everyone has the potential to innovate, sure. (You never know who is going to create radical change. Why not it be you?)

But you’re not a magical innovator of innovation just by sheer virtue of your unique individual awesomeness. To be an “innovator”, you actually have to innovate. That’s not always possible, and it’s not always desirable.

Picasso: Smarter than the dude behind me in the sandwich line.

I don’t care if what we’re doing is new. I don’t care if it’s different. I only care if it’s working.

Impact is the most important thing. Innovation should be its servant.

Some professional sectors - like mine - are sonew that there are no rules for how to do it well. There are no established old-school codes ripe for disruption. The field has been around for decades, not centuries. Which means each new program or project idea isn’t innovative. It’s not disruptive. It’s just “Tuesday”.

Every day we show up and try to do things that have never been done before. We should be so lucky to have programs that draw on repeatable skills, to have an opportunity to do one thing multiple times to hone our crafts.

Innovation is a luxury of the establishment. Our scrappy underdog goal is impact. Let’s talk about that.