Innovation Elegance is an expression to evolve away from software-centric methodologies and combat a VUCA culture.

Many assume that innovation work and project work have to be messy. It doesn’t. Teamwork shouldn’t be rigid, but it should be well-organized. Teamwork should allow for mistakes but not allow for dysfunction. A combination of discipline and empathy shapes a culture of elegance.

Over the past 20 years, Agile has become a bulletproof, invincible term. Anyone not claiming the word risks being labeled rigid, obsolete, or a dinosaur. It’s difficult to opt out of claiming to be agile. But the meaning of agile has evolved, splintered, and warped. The term has performed better than the teams it aimed to serve.

Elegance aims to replace agile as a bulletproof, invincible term but makes it easy to opt-out. Anyone rejecting the term and the habits risks being labeled low discipline, low empathy, and VUCA. Innovation is a team sport, and jobs exist for those who prefer solo sports.

Innovation practitioners use “Elegance” to express that they distinguish themselves from Agilists, combat VUCA, and formally manage using Five Verbs.