Innovating for Strategy and Happiness

Innovations are often the objects of our desires.? It is human nature to want to develop something new, whether it be a gadget, an application, a process, a legal argument, or a poem. ?In technology, leaders and managers often want more and faster innovations because it seems that out-innovating our competitors will make us better and keep us ahead.

In my experience, that is precisely backward.? Innovation should not be a strategy.? Innovation alone is a very diffuse way to achieve goals.? Instead, one must first develop a strategy and then employ innovation to realize that strategy.? But even before the strategy are goals.? What is it that we want?? What goal is worthy enough that we must develop a strategy for it and then innovate to execute that strategy?? Once that is clear, the hard work of developing a strategy should ensue, and innovation will (almost) naturally follow.

As the former Chief Science Officer of the United States Space Force, I am familiar with the constant drumbeat to innovate swiftly and efficiently.? Well-meaning, patriotic leaders are often heard calling for “accelerating technology transition,” “adopting more commercial innovations,” or “taking more risks in acquisition.”? From a darker perspective, the science and technology community is often blamed for being too slow, playing in their sandboxes, focusing on the esoteric, or not putting the warfighter's needs first.

I offer an alternative perspective and recommendation for our nation.? Rather than instilling a frenzied pace of gadgets, apps, and formulas to cure our ills, how about we start with figuring out our pinnacle goal and developing a strategy to achieve it?? Is our goal to stave off global warming, ensure democracy for all, create peace on Earth, or keep artificial intelligence bots from eating us for breakfast?

While all of these are laudable goals that should be pursued, let’s begin with a goal that is fundamental to our nation—as evidenced by its presence in the Declaration of Independence: the pursuit of happiness.? While we could debate what Thomas Jefferson meant by “happiness,” I will assume that the author Carli Conklin was correct when she stated that happiness is synonymous with the Greek concept of eudaimonia in that it involves a sense of “well-being or a state of flourishing that is the result of living a fit or virtuous life” applied to a nation as a whole.

Using this definition of happiness as our top-most goal, the next step is establishing a strategy to achieve happiness.? From a nation's perspective, that includes its people's well-being through equality, opportunity, education, and a vibrant economy.? From an infrastructure perspective, that might involve ensuring the nation is well-connected (as with roads, rails, and fiber). ?Another strategic branch includes national security, foreign policy, and having enough control authority on the world stage to meet our global happiness interests.

Drilling down on this last topic a little further, we can develop happiness strategies specific to national security, military power, or foreign policy.? For example, we might articulate a strategy to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” as did Theodore Roosevelt.?

Although we would do well to take this strategy down a few more levels, it is possible to stop here and begin to think about innovation.? What technology (or policy or organizational construct) could be implemented to help us with a strategy for big-stick happiness?? What are the old tried-and-true ways, and what might work better for today’s situation?? Will a novel application of quantum computers help--perhaps by allowing us to encrypt our precious happiness data better--or is a large-language model the right innovation tool--presumably to free us from the mundane so that we may pursue happiness more freely?? Or perhaps the most appropriate innovation is to extend humanity to another planet so we can experience happiness anew on another world.? Let the innovators go wild!

The point is that innovations should be made for a reason. ?New technological innovations should support—and possibly inform—strategy, but most of all, innovations should help us achieve a goal.? Otherwise, they are just novelties that will come and go.?

Let’s turn the strategy of innovation upside down and innovate for the strategy.