Notes
Looking back on our years working in innovation, a number of learnings have been gained that now inform and guide our work today.
Note #1 - Culture's Shaping of the Innovation Practice
Innovation is a universal activity that has been at the heart of the human journey for tens of thousands of years. It is essential from an evolutionary perspective, aiding in our adaptation and development. Many of the innovations we consider groundbreaking relied less on the momentary brilliance of individuals and more on the collective efforts of skilled individuals working collaboratively towards a shared goal. These individuals often hailed from different backgrounds and experiences but were united in their shared openness to question and challenge prevailing thoughts and assumptions.
​
The realization of this has given birth to the practice of innovation we know today. A practice that seeks to ritualise and orchestrate innovation outputs.
​
However, through my years of conducting and facilitating innovation projects cross-culturally, I have learned that the essence of innovation; its societal role, methods of execution, and even its definition are influenced and shaped by cultural context. Many factors shape this context, such as; belief systems, language, communication, implicit knowledge, and even recent history. These factors give each of us a unique "toolkit" that guides our creative endeavors.
​
When we practice innovation, particularly cross-culturally, we must first engage in taking the time to truly understand the perspective and context of the people we are working with. We must widen our gaze beyond the comfort zones of innovation tools and methods.
Note #2 - Finding The True Early Adopters
The focus of innovation has traditionally been associated with the potential for creation—the ability to generate new and novel ideas or products. However, it's important to recognize that innovation is a two-sided equation, and the adoption side of the equation is of equal importance. Without adoption, innovation and its potential impact remain limited. When we conduct research seeking to understand 'early adopters', we should note that these individuals may not be in the country where the innovation was created. In today's highly connected world, the early adopters of an innovation could exist anywhere. In fact, the countries undergoing rapid economic and social change are where we find people that are the most open and adoptive to new products. So when we're trying to understand how the adoption of a new innovation will unfold, it's important we remember to look beyond our immediate idea and find the people who are really ready to try out and put our innovation through its paces.
.png)
Note #3 - The Past As A Path To The Future
We expect people to remember the past and imagine the future. However, when we interview individuals and ask them to recall moments from their past, they often reconstruct it based on their current perspective. At the same time, when asked about their future plans, they frequently project themselves into the future by drawing on experiences from their past. Over time, this can lead to a sort of role reversal: people 'imagining' their past and 'remembering' their future. Understanding this human habit is important to understand when we are seeking to anticipate how future scenarios, including the introduction of new technology, might unfold. Our past experiences will inform and guide our path to the future. By understanding how people have experienced and navigated change in the past, we can gain insight into how they may approach and adapt to new innovations in the future.
Note #4 - The Need To Make Our Ideas Real
When we embark on an innovation project, we initiate a journey of mutual co-creation, one shared with our team, users, and partners. The ultimate trajectory of the project will be found within the collective knowledge and experiences of this group. The ability for us to share our thoughts and ideas is critical to achieving this trajectory. Often, non-designers leave too many of their thoughts inaccessible, relying heavily on verbal communication while neglecting simple acts of bringing ideas to life through tools such as sketching, diagramming or narratives.
However, a chasm exists between the two worlds we inhabit: the objective physical realm we live in and the subjective realm nestled within our minds, brimming with thoughts and ideas. While ideas remain in our minds, they remain inaccessible and uninterpretable to our team.
To bridge this chasm, the philosopher Karl Popper proposed creating a third realm, which he called 'objective knowledge.' This realm is described as an "objective" space between the real world and our personal thoughts. It is where we transform our ideas into something that provides our team, users and partners with the opportunity to examine, manipulate, play with and ultimately critique. It is only through this act of bringing our thoughts to life, subjecting them to manipulation and critique, that we as a team can access and develop our shared knowledge and realize our full innovation trajectory.
