One of the insight that I gained tonight for why innovation is not innovation if it is not well contextualised. And I am not only talking about product innovation or process innovation. In Singapore, we are BIG on learning from Best Practices- either from other organisations or abroad. But time and again, people end up kicking themselves in the butt when they realised that it worked to a small extent. In my discussion with Mary Murdock (Buffalo State University of New York) we discussed that Asians are big time suckers for such incremental, success trodden path-where we just wants all the absolute evidence needed to backup the plan that it will work, before really testing the idea out. Was the problem with "us" (the copiers) or "them" (the best sharers) Understand too that often people love sharing their success stories but often struggles with sharing the less glamorous part of their journey.
Uffe Elbaek ( from being a Danish MP, turned entrepreneur and founder KaosPilots-INternational School of New Business Design & Social Innovation) blew me away on why he started a whole new type of learning experience. Kaospilot is an amazing school in Arhaus, Denmark -- their objective is to churn out graduates who can think laterally and navigate the chaos of the 21st century. Much as we talk about PBL as an useful pedagogy for schools to teach 21st century skills, this man had the vision of such a school that will completely transform the learning experience of students. That beyond gaining the professional certification, he started bubbling(on my papery table mat) the other core competencies that were more fundamental for all graduates for Kaospilot- Meaning, change, climate and relationships. Maybe as we are talking about Applied Learning in the Singapore curriculum, its time to see how students rise to REAL projects, rather than case studies. EVERY project was a real social innovation project- that allowed students to "gain nuanced knowledge and practical experience of the schools’ three core disciplines: creative project, process and business design." Check it out http://www.kaospilot.dk/
Alan Webber (cofounder and editor of Fast Company mangazine and editor of Harvard Business Review) dropped by for dinner as he was on his way tomorrow to Norway to present his thoughts on global innovations through his concept of Turn around society. As we spoke, he challenged me as we spoke about the need to "buy in" to a coporate vision. He led me to think that perhaps today, the individuals want to "buy out"- and thats why the tipping point of creativity lies. I could understand why he started by asking "What are the BIG ideas that you are after?" What are the elements of successful companies would we would to replicate. I love his point on why some companies simply thrive on success...that they search deep within themselves on the specifics of why it worked and continue to just work on that.
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