{"id":12179,"date":"2024-12-11T12:04:38","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T11:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/?p=12179"},"modified":"2024-12-11T12:04:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T11:04:39","slug":"challenge-led-innovation-redesigning-democracy-to-address-the-challenges-of-our-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/challenge-led-innovation-redesigning-democracy-to-address-the-challenges-of-our-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge-led Innovation: (re)designing democracy to address the challenges of our time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prof <\/em>Ingrid Burkett<\/strong>, Gri\ufb03th Centre for Systems Innovation and The Good Shift (Australia).<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We are living in a global context facing significant ecological, social, cultural and political crises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some refer to this period as a \u2018polycrisis\u2019 or \u2018metacrisis\u2019. The big question is whether this context requires a redesign of democracy (principles and processes) in order to respond to these interconnected crises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representative democracy may be fit for purpose when crises are clearly understood, responses and responsibilities are known, and actions by representatives are trusted and can therefore be taken quickly. However, in the context of a \u2018polycrisis\u2019 centralised <\/em><\/strong>decision-making and innovation may be less effective – as Indy Johar highlights: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf democracies cannot build decentralised, distributed capacities for innovation with mutual learning and recognition of interdependence, then they will struggle to make the complex transitions necessitated by the challenges and opportunities that confront us\u201d (2020).<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we have been exploring and testing is the interplay between \u2018innovating democracy\u2019 and \u2018democratising innovation\u2019 – because in a polycrisis we may well need to lean into both. Over the past five years we have developed a \u2018Challenge-led Innovation\u2019 framework as one way in which we could democratise innovation. An overview of the elements are depicted in Figure 1 below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This framework draws on the work of Mariana Mazzucato, and in particular her Mission Oriented Innovation framework. It also engages with complexity practices (see Dave Snowden\u2019s work in particular), and with transformational learning approaches to generating impact (see our matrix in this publication). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The framework is one way to test and learn how we could \u2018democratise innovation\u2019 as it requires: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Broad participation in innovation processes – not just government, but also diverse sectors and actors;\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Intersecting innovation portfolios and projects that test and learn forward towards a directional goal; and\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • The development of distributed capabilities for innovation and learning.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        This last point has proven to be the most critical as we shift from business as usual (aka, centralised or siloed incremental change) towards much more transformational approaches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        Two key capabilities have come up in all our work: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n
        1. How we collaborate<\/strong> democratically within and across govern-ment and organisa-tional boundaries;\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          1. How we learn<\/strong> within, across and between projects and portfoli-os.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            These are briefly explored below – and were the main contribution of my presentation at DBJ.24. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            How we Collaborate Across Boundaries <\/em><\/strong>There is much focus on how we can collaborate more effectively (and efficiently!) in spaces that require multiple organisations, sectors and diverse stakeholders. While there are many models and frameworks for collaboration, in our work we have found a handful of principles that have been helpful as people learn their way into complex collaborations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              \n
            • When we are innovating across boundaries we need to acknowledge and work with competition not just collaboration (see figure 2);\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                \n
              • Too often we turn to formal governance processes to \u2018hold\u2019 the collaboration, and this inevitably means too many committees and meetings. Finding ways to lead and organise collaboration without business as usual governance infrastructure needs work and innovation itself!\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                  \n
                • Shared ownership of data, outcomes, directions can provide more relational \u2018glue\u2019 and commitment than endless committee meetings. This means relational and shared responsibility infrastructure is critical to effective collaboration – it is also much more long-lasting than any committee meeting structures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                  <\/p>\n\n\n

                  \n
                  \"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

                  Figure 3: From Confetti to Spaghetti – learning across projects<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  How we Learn Within and Across Projects <\/em><\/strong>Innovation, by its very nature, is about \u2018learning\u2019 – trying, testing, iterating towards an outcome, and in the process, learning what works and what doesn\u2019t. If the outcome is, for example, energy transition, then there isn\u2019t just \u2018one\u2019 innovation project that is needed. We need dozens – maybe even hundreds of concurrent innovation projects, some technical and other \u2018social\u2019 or \u2018human\u2019. All these projects have intersections or are actually interdependent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  We won\u2019t achieve the energy transition (or other complex transformations) if we approach this sort of innovation project-by-project. We need much more than a confetti of projects. We need learning infrastructures and processes so that the opportunities of interdependencies between projects can be harnessed the risks of gaps growing between innovation and implementation can be reduced (see Figure 3). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Not all aspects of large scale transformations require innovation. So one of the key aspects of Challenge-led Innovation is to address how we sit business as usual change processes (such as strategy) alongside innovation processes. There are already things we are doing that will help us towards transformation – so we don\u2019t want to lose or disregard these. We just need to make sure we create space for intersecting strategy and innovation (for example), and develop ways (using human processes and technology) to ensure that learning can be shared across these spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  \u2014\u2014- <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Democratising innovation is, no doubt, a crucial part of addressing the polycrisis. It may even help us innovate democracy! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  Prof Ingrid Burkett, Gri\ufb03th Centre for Systems Innovation and The Good Shift (Australia). We are living in a global context facing significant ecological, social, cultural and political crises.  Some refer to this period as a \u2018polycrisis\u2019 or \u2018metacrisis\u2019. The big question is whether this context requires a redesign of democracy (principles and processes) in order…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}