People-focused knowledge management

Innovation Capability
The act of personal innovation involves bringing together mental
constructs, such as concepts and mental models in ways that are
novel. Innovation and deep expertise are capabilities that we use to
integrate and engage in conceptual blending. These traits are not 
preprogrammed functions that consist of operationalizing or execut-
ing prior knowledge as a “mind-as-container” model might suggest.
Instead, they represent a unique human aptitude. As discussed by
Fauconnier and Turner, innovation is often an implicit mental func-
tion that involves conceptual blending — the powerful capability that
is exclusively human and that allows new juxtapositions of mental
constructs (such as mental models) when motivated by new contexts
and situations (Fauconnier & Turner 2002).
Innovation Capability denotes the degree to which a person’s atti-
tude, motivation, and knowledge inspire her to pursue creation and
search for novel and more effective alternatives (Boden 1990, 1994;
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People-Focused Knowledge Management
De Bono 1978, 1992; Halpern 1989). With a broader perspective,
she may also innovate by pursuing double-loop learning (Argyris 
& Schön 1974). By being curious and innovative, she invents oppor-
tunities that may not be obvious, and she reframes, generates, and
tests solutions to better attain enterprise goals as well as her personal
objectives. When engaging in simple Decision-Making, she may
allow herself to experiment by tacitly infusing her routine reference
models with new ideas or with ideas from other, similar situations.
She may use the opportunity to speculate and generate new perspec-
tives on how her work might be done better. In these cases, the com-
petent person engages in double-loop learning and applies critical
thinking. 
The extent and effectiveness of Action Space and Innovation Capa-
bility are functions of personal knowledge and mental capabilities
that integrate knowledge objects and mental constructs, or engage a
person in conceptual blending. As such, the effectiveness of those
functions is determined by what the person knows and understands
about how to handle related situations, the way she understands
them, and how far she is willing to go to ascertain that the best 
decision option is determined. These proficiencies are functions of
personal energy, attention, curiosity, attitudes, emotions, motivation,
and available resources, along with understanding of the authority
and permissions delegated by the enterprise. When the functional
proficiencies are more limited than the scope of the person’s work
responsibilities requires, the Action Space and Innovation Capability
will reduce her operational effectiveness and therefore become con-
straints on effective decision making. Conversely, when we can assist
people to expand their Action Space and Innovation Capability com-
petently, new opportunities will emerge for improved performance
and new strategic options.