Perhaps why innovation feels somewhat flat (well for me) is our organizations and societies are utterly failing to allow us all to step up in innovation to tackle those huge societal issues; those massive, growing problems that are swirling all around us.
We need to shake out of our lethargy and really begin to attempt to solve the real issues of our time. Some organizations are clearly working on and trying to draw attention and gain greater engagement but we need a much greater concerted effort to focus on the big societal challenges.
Global warming, rising health issues, finally cracking cancer, malaria, dementia, finding different solutions to the ageing within society. How are we going to tackle the rapidly depleting natural resources, the future conflicts over water, food, or energy? These are big, hairy, audacious gaps to be resolved.
Are we capable or simply just avoiding these BIG challenges?
Many are avoiding the need to stare hard into the future as we are not re-equipping everyone with skills that combine inventiveness, innovation and creativity that contribute to their communities, we have got stuck in the “me”.
A reality of depletion in many of our essential resources is racing towards us and it is not a pretty sight.
The growing radical innovation activity gap
We are facing the innovation gap as our problems keep growing linearly yet we must find ways to rapidly scale and deploy our knowledge in new, more dynamic ways. This requires society to learn how to apply effective innovation themselves, not just being whipped up, waiting for the latest gadget or incremental advancement to be put into their hands.
We need to build the desire of wanting to be part of rebuilding society; making our contribution to real advancement or feeling they were there, involved, part of the “times” when this shift to societal innovation was happening.
The solution lies in a radical adoption of ecosystem thinking where collaboration and networks build the level of innovation relationships and trust to combine and seek to address these big challenges.
We need to be collectively moved by innovation and what it can offer.
Technology does hold a vital key, so does the emerging social media for reaching out to critical masses but let’s face it, today we are deploying the best resources (the best and the brightest) not in the area of solving big societal problems but in slavishly churning out the next technology or gadget.
These actually mean nothing unless they become increasingly part of the solutions we really do need urgently, to tackle the big societal issues.
We certainly need communications, platforms, different media techniques and mobility as part of the initial global building blocks to put in place the infrastructures to solve these societal problems.
We need the tools, infrastructure, methods, and techniques to scale for solving societal problems not the latest incremental improvement for Apple, Facebook or Google. How about providing innovations that can deliver the parts that give us the power to tackle the problems of our time?
We need innovation tools, structures and methods that will allow each of us to invent, innovate, and be creative in finding our contributions and solutions to societal problems. To go and apply these in practical solutions not just simply adopt them.
Dealing with value creation and growth but in radically different ways
We seek value creation, most usually by creating demand and pushing for increasing consumption. Growth is measured by our productivity gains. Is this the right way to measure ourselves and how we set about preserving our precious resources? No, we need to challenge this, a real paradigm shift that alters our lenses looking out on the world.
Changing our thinking for a new world of preserving our precious resources
Today’s modern economic activity does need challenging and it is through rethinking much of our view of judging success.
Success in preserving, achieving effective trading and the reuse of our precious resources needs a fresh set of thinking, a new economic understanding.
This thinking is way beyond my preserve, there are far better-qualified people to offer suggestions than me on this. All I know is that innovation, creativity and invention must all play their part.
Yet we need a new platform to form relationships around to build this innovative capability in highly collaborative, trusting ways.
For me the solution lies in a radical adoption of ecosystem thinking. Creating the environment where collaboration and networks build the level of innovation relationships and trust to then combine and push their ingenuity out to address these big challenges.