There is an apparent push to develop and commercialise new and innovative process flow sheets. A not-too-difficult reality check clearly demonstrates that the success rate of this push is not particularly significant and in fact could be regarded as a waste or misappropriation of R&D funding and the associated brain power. As Julian Sumner Miller would comment why is this so? To put it bluntly, many of the so-called innovative developments are equivalent to gold plating the dunny door - visually interesting but of very limited practical value. This presentation encapsulates some personal lessons learnt over the past 45 years.CITATION:Canterford, J, 2013. Developing a new and innovative' process flow sheet - Traps for all players of all ages, in Proceedings MetPlant 2013 , pp 1-5 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).