'Think on your feet' has the accent on thinking, of a kind that works with
the situation. A crisis-fireman is acting more than thinking. 'Think on
your feet' refers to phronesis, knowledge and judgment in social and
political situations, contrasted with techne (artisan skill) and episteme
(apodictic knowledge).
Innovation requires thinking, but also action. Action without thinking
will rely on habit, hence no innovation. Thinking without action -- or
without action yet -- is a nice idea. Those who have an idea, disclose it
formally, then flog it to death, may succeed and score an innovation, but
that's not 'thinking on your feet.' The wily stateman who shapes and times
his message according to the materials and events available can be said to
'think on his feet'. He may innovate, or may accommodate. Thus, thinking
on one's feet is not necessarily innovative, but it is a major route to
innovation that the action-weighted crisis-fireman has not developed.
-- Kent Myers kent_myers@smtplink.sra.com