• by Kaila Colbin , Featured Contributor, June 30, 2023

The United States is the most innovative economy in the world, according to the U.S. State Department. Per its website, “U.S. companies drive global innovation and the development of advanced and emerging technologies.”

The Harvard Business Reviewwarns us not to get too cocky, noting, “China is now home to many of the fastest start-ups to reach a $1 billion valuation globally. Whatever has propelled Chinese companies to the top, the metrics we use to evaluate innovation have missed it.”

These observations presume that innovation is about technology and can be measured by start-up valuations. But that’s an assumption. They’ve skipped a step. They’ve failed to ask the foundational question: What do we want to be innovative in?

Here’s my proposal:

Let’s innovate how we deal with mental health. Let’s see each other as whole people navigating the complexities of life rather than as machines to be fixed pharmaceutically.

Let’s innovate in building cultures of connection and belonging. Loneliness is a bigger indicator of premature mortality than smoking 15 cigarettes or consuming six alcoholic drinks every day. Looping back to the mental-health bit: It’s impossible for us to be mentally well when we’re disconnected from each other. We’re hard-wired for belonging.

Let’s innovate how we engage with indigenous people. How we begin to acknowledge and address the harms of colonization. How we recognize that the people with the strongest connection to the land are usually the wisest caretakers of the land.

Let’s innovate how we deal with climate change. Let’s implement all the carrots and all the sticks to create a true systemic response rather than relying on willpower or individual altruism.

Let’s innovate how we deal with inequity, including creating tax policies that fairly recognize that every success relies on its surrounding society and infrastructure. Let’s take ideas like a universal basic income seriously.

Let’s innovate how we deal with crime. All the evidence shows increased incarceration rates don’t reduce crime. Let’s focus on root causes (see above re: cultures of connection and belonging).

Let’s innovate how democracy might evolve. Citizens’ assemblies and sortition (the idea of randomly selecting our leaders rather than voting for them) are concepts that have shown enormous potential and success. Let’s not assume that we got the format right 200 years ago; everything should be open to evolution.

You might think my ideas are ridiculous, too out there, too radical. Perhaps that’s true. I’m not here hoping you’ll agree with every suggestion I make. I’m hoping that, together, we can explore more profound questions than whether we can create more billion-dollar companies.

Our framework for innovation should ask what it would take to build the kind of world we want our kids to inherit, the kind of world we can be proud of. Technology isn’t good just because it’s technology. It’s good because of what it can do for us. So our first question should always be, “What kind of world do we want?”

And then, let’s innovate toward that.