How our innovation structures deceive us

It's no surprise: for problems that have been around for a while, we usually develop certain structures to deal with them efficiently. Think about structures as organisations like companies or research laboratories, or processes like quality assurance or even the scientific method. Each of these established organisations and ready-made processes are designed for a purpose: to solve a specific known problem. And that's what … Continue reading How our innovation structures deceive us →

The Gordian Knot of innovation?

When you think about the flow of useful knowledge through society, and then imagine how that flow enables innovation, you'll realize a massive entanglement. At first glance, there is a myriad of different connections between people, processes, and locations: these are the tangible pieces of the puzzle. At second glance, you'll find that they all play some role in the generation, dissemination, and application of useful … Continue reading The Gordian Knot of innovation? →

A supply chain for innovation

Supply chain: the term suggests a pretty simple and manageable process that delivers a given product. It sounds rather well-defined: all process steps and all necessary ingredients are known in advance. And it seems linear: one process step's output is the another step's input. As long as you follow the recipe and put in the right ingredients … Continue reading A supply chain for innovation →

The multitude of technology choices

Usually we do not realise it, but our relation with technology is far from simple. Not only at the macro-level, such as the interactions between social media and society, but also for every individual. Today I'll try to cast some light on our personal technology choices: How do we as individuals pick the "right" technology? What influences our … Continue reading The multitude of technology choices →

Cities, companies, and innovation – An emerging narrative

The work of Geoffrey West and his team is truly fascinating. In their cross-disciplinary research on complex adaptive systems, they looked for common underlying principles that could be applicable to biological systems and social systems alike. Of course I'm particularly interested in West's observations on social systems like cities and companies; and the different roles they play in innovation. Today, … Continue reading Cities, companies, and innovation – An emerging narrative →