When we seek change the temptation is looking for ‘the key’ component of a problem or situation that, if changed, is expected to lead to profound transformation. Too frequently these type of solutions fail not because the change to the component is poor, but that the thinking is not aligned to the system that contributes […]
Systems thinking and collective impact Read More »
Although Innovation is about producing value through doing something new or different than before, the concept is far from simple when applied in practice by individuals and institutions. This second in a series of articles on innovation ecology looks at the way we speak of innovation and how what we talk about new ideas and
The Ecology of Innovation: Part 2 – Language Read More »
Social innovation is about bringing new ideas, products and services out into society with others for social benefit and improving the lives of our communities. While not every innovation will benefit everyone, there is a need to examine more deeply the question of who benefits(?) when we consider social innovation and that means taking some
Social innovation, social inclusion Read More »
Social innovations are judged by their impact, but in the quest to assess what it does we can miss the way it does it and that is where justice and the emotional connections that justice deals with come into play. Unless we consider social justice a part of social innovation we are likely to exclude
Social innovation, social justice and the emotional link between them Read More »
In social innovation we are at risk of confusing our stories of success for real, genuine impact. Without theories, implementation science or evaluation we risk aspiring to travel to the moon, yet leaving our rockets stuck on the launchpad. Â There is a Buddhist expression that goes like this: Be careful not to confuse the
The Finger Pointing to the Moon Read More »
Some fields stagnate because they fail to take the bold steps into the unknown by taking chances and proposing new ideas because the research isn’t there to guide it while social innovation has a different twist on the problem: it has plenty of ideas, but little research to support those ideas. Unless the ideas and
Seeing the lights in research with our heads in the clouds Read More »
As social innovation grows in popularity the inevitable questions about what we mean when we use the term crop up. How we define, categorize and utilize the language of social innovation may require a taxonomy to enable us to better identify and understand its different species in the wild. One of the early things
Do We Need a Social Innovation Taxonomy? Read More »
Innovation is a term commonly associated with ‘new’ and sparkly products and things, but that quest for the bigger and more shiny in what we do often obscures the true innovative potential within systems. Rethinking what we mean by innovation and considering the role that quality plays might help us determine whether bigger and glossy
Beyond the Big and New: Innovating on Quality Read More »
Who would have thought that failure would be held up as something to be desired just a few years ago? Yet, it is one thing to extol the virtues of failure in words, it is quite another to create systems that support failure in action and if the latter doesn’t follow the former, failure will
Acting on Failure or Failure to Act? Read More »
 Innovators transform the world around them in big and small ways and while a successful effort can be lauded by pundits, politicians and the public there is a long road to making change happen. That road is also a lonely one and doing things different means more than just innovating and experiencing what it means to be
Isolation: The New Innovator’s Dilemma Read More »
