What are innovation velocities?

Innovation velocities are how fast new ideas or changes happen in a place or group, like a race between friends to see who can build the best sandcastle first.

Imagine you and your friends go to the beach every day after school. Some days, everyone builds a tiny castle with just one tower. Other days, people work together and make huge castles with towers, walls, and even moats. The velocity of innovation is like how quickly those big, fancy castles appear compared to the small ones.

If you build your sandcastle super fast every day, your innovation velocity is high. But if it takes you all afternoon just to make a simple tower, your innovation velocity is low. It’s like comparing how quickly you can draw a picture versus how long it takes to paint a whole mural.

Sometimes, one person brings a new idea, like using seashells for decoration, and suddenly everyone wants to try it too. That makes the group's innovation velocity go up, just like when your friend shows you a cool trick on the swings, and all of a sudden, everyone is trying it!