The proliferation of ‘tips and tricks’ for boosting change-making and innovation efforts obscures the craft and commitment that transformation requires. Visit sites like Medium, search YouTube, or scroll through your Twitter feed and you’ll find endless sources of tips and tricks to innovate, transform, or learn. Tips and tricks work for formatting files with software. …
One bright idea is pretty but a collection of ideas put into practice over time, sustainably, is beautiful (and real innovation). Sustainable innovation — a process, practice, and culture of design-driven creativity — might be the most valuable outcome for any organization. Real, sustained innovation is not about creating a single item — product, service, policy …
Learning is at the heart of innovation and works best when evaluation is part of the process to spot what’s actually learned. Learning is a critical part of innovation and evaluation is about understanding its role. There are many definitions of innovation out there. After years of experience, observation, and study I’ve found them lacking …
What does it take to innovate? We look at the basics and what they mean for individuals and organizations looking to do it. Innovation is often equated with its products, not its process. That’s one of the reasons it’s often mis-understood and poorly done at an institutional level because the emphasis is placed on the …
Systems change requires the kind of tools and mindset shifts that can move how and what we see to act better. We profile various strategies to help you do that.
When systems are changing everywhere the opportunities to direct some of that change to design the world we want has never been greater. Systemic design has been developing over the past decade from a set of loosely connected ideas drawn from different streams of systems thinking and the multidisciplinary field of design. Brought together, this …
System change requires we understand the perceptions of those in that system. Here’s a way to go about that and make change real, not just an idea #systemchange #systemsthinking #systemicdesign
Systems thinking is essential for managing complexity – if done well. These guides for systems theory, practice, and evaluation can help. Systems thinking is natural for people when given the freedom to contemplate their world around them. While simple to do in general terms, systems thinking can be difficult when applied to specific problems, particularly …
The Canadian province of Alberta has a reputation for fostering innovation. From strategic foresight to systemic design this reputation is well-earned. Alberta is a province in Western Canada known internationally for its expansive landscape of prairie and mountains, oil industry, and prehistoric riches. Its weather can be extreme — from large temperature swings (including the …
Innovation work requires a mindset, a skillset, and a toolset. The key is finding the right tools for the job. Building anything — a new product, process, policy — requires tools (even if that is just your hands). Today we expand our profile some tools introduced in the last issue of the Censemaking Innovation Newsletter …
