Innovation comes from the Latin innovationem, noun of action from innovare. The Etymology Dictionary further explains innovare as dating back to 1540 and stemming from the Latin innovatus, pp. of innovare "to renew or change," from in- "into" + novus "new".
Innovation can therefore be seen as the process that renews something that exists and not, as is commonly assumed, the introduction of something new. Furthermore this makes clear innovation is not an economic term by origin, but dates back to the Middle Ages at least. Possibly even earlier.
The central meaning of innovation thus relates to renewal. For this renewal to take place it is necessary for people to change the way they make decisions, they must choose to do things differently, make choices outside of their norm.
Although this definition is from Wikipedia it is poignant in that it relates to issues brought up on our trip to The Resource Recovery Corp. (renew as the next step after reduce, reuse and recycle...)
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