The latest issue of the Censemaking Innovation Newsletter is out. Looking for a better coffee break?: just open your inbox.
Innovation is not a topic bereft of content: it’s the opposite.
There’s so much content out there across so many fields that many people just rely on whatever pops into their news feed. It’s why I’ve started a newsletter. And yes, I know that there are a LOT of newsletters out there. This is a little different: it’s meant to be read (not just clicked), not too much, but also thought about.
The little changes are meant to keep it distinct (why repeat what others have done?), but mostly to help you learn and think about the constellation of topics that encompass innovation: design, psychology, systems thinking, evaluation, foresight, education and much more.
The idea is to present things that are different, but might go together. Not quite a theme, but not just random facts, either. We humans don’t learn that way. We need diversity and coherence, which might seem like a paradox, but that’s how we learn.
Timely Advice
I’ve been taught some of my most valued, useful lessons many times over. Sometimes, I’ve even managed to learn the lessons.
That’s the funny thing about applied learning: it’s about timeliness as much as the quality and relevance of the content. I’ve often found that I ‘rediscover’ some tool, theory, model, or data source many times over because I forget about it: it came when I wasn’t ready for it.
The problem is how to recall something when we are inundated with and exposed to more data, information, and synthesized knowledge than any time in history — more than the entire sum-total of history — in regular life.
I’ve written before about how things are changing at Censemaking and this is an update to say that more is coming. We’re all part of a learning experiment here to see what we can do to better teach, learn, share, and apply what is known about innovation to make change happen.
Site Updates
Frequent visitors will notice some small changes. I’ve added a new page called The Design Loft to serve as a link to a series of resources on supporting design thinking for professional evaluators. There will also be new tools added to help people search content and find the best resources that relate to them. Stay tuned
The newsletter will continue to be published every two weeks and the content will be syndicated here with additional features and analysis provided. Think of Censemaking as ‘Newsletter Plus’. Still, getting something to your inbox can be useful — consider subscribing.
Lastly, there will be an entirely new resource section that’s going to replace the Library. It’s going to be an applied toolkit to help innovation practitioners learn more quickly and strategically through providing access to quality resources for innovation.
That’s it for now.
Thank you to all who read, comment, support and provide the inspiration for this site. I appreciate it all and all of you.