Comments on: What if the best way to be innovative is not to try?

By: Irene Guijt

Irene Guijt — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 11:51:24 +0000

Back from holidays so rather late to this debate, agree that innovation is a very relative concept. I work in evaluation quite a bit and am struck by how certain methods (around since the early 1990s) are considered by some as innovative. Which they are – because it is new for them (http://betterevaluation.org/blog/transparency_and_accountability ) Looking outside sectors, having conversations outside comfort zone, bringing those experiences to bear on problem setting and option identifying, is all about having your antenna out. But the incentives under which we work don’t often value innovation – which inevitably involves a few deadends and errors, etc.

By: Peter Croft

Peter Croft — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 08:29:05 +0000

Innovation is about more than just novel solutions to problems: it’s also about a focus on defining the problems themselves. Without a good problem definition – with the right level of precision for that class of problem- it’s hard to get the creative juices going.

It’s also imperative to get the right mixture of people together – not just the subject-matter experts – but people from different fields used to working with different sorts of problems, to chew over the possibilities.

By: James Whitehead

James Whitehead — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 07:32:48 +0000

Nigel – I am delighted that there is still some memory of how the magic stones terracing began. Sometimes the new is also something that we used to do, forgot, and then invented again with new vocabulary.

By: James Whitehead

James Whitehead — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 07:25:06 +0000

Nicholas, you raise an important point about stealing that you need time to go out there and find out what might be worth stealing. Systematically creating that space within an organisation (by reading, exchanging staff, seconding, bringing unusual stakeholders together, etc) requires a surprising amount of culture change in many larger organisation.

By: Nicholas Colloff

Nicholas Colloff — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:50:10 +0000

Wholly agree with Barney, innovation is often successfully stealing and adapting the ideas of others to your context. Thus, staff ought to be empowered to thieve intelligently, should read widely and in unexpected places; and, be free of guilt when out of their office and not visiting a ‘partner’.

By: Duncan Green

Duncan Green — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:23:24 +0000

Thanks Barney, so we need antennae out there, spotting and adapting good ideas, and a system that welcomes them and backs experimentation. Simples.

By: Duncan Green

Duncan Green — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:22:22 +0000

Really interesting observation Martin – people in the aid biz spend an awful lot of their time on global telecons, videocons etc, and as far as I know, they have never been helped to learn how to get the most out of what can be quite a sterile exchange

By: Nigel Twose

Nigel Twose — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:05:13 +0000

I agree with Barney: much of what we call innovation is not a new idea, but an adaptation or geographical relocation of an existing idea. The ‘magic stones’ terracing from the ’80s is another good example from your post: this was not new; Bill Hereford saw the technique in the Negev desert and thought it might work in (what was then) Upper Volta. Sometimes we get too hung up on the new….

By: Martin White

Martin White — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 12:01:34 +0000

I think that many of the issues around a lack of innovation arise from the way that organisations now work as virtual digital workplaces. This requires new approaches to sharing opportunities and solutions. There was a superb book written in 2004 by Jill Nemiro, entitled Creativity in Virtual Teams http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787971146.html which is still valid today even if the technology has increased in bandwidth. My experience is that virtual teaming can accentuate issues of national and organisational culture that can easily stifle innovation. They also need a very different approach to leadership. Yet it seems to me that very few organisations take the trouble to invest in virtual team training beyond just how to use the technology.

By: Catherine Dom

Catherine Dom — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 10:31:21 +0000

There’s a TED talk that anyone interested in innovation should listen to… Innovation is about creativity and letting creativity flourish. What happens when most education systems on the planet (perhaps unwittingly, I’m not sure) are all about destroying it? http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en (In addition, it’s a fun one)