Points of Contexture

Innovation Ecosystems: A new way of seeing (Part 2)

In our previous blog post, Innovation Ecosystems:A new way of seeing (Part 1), we outlined a new way of seeing innovation and organizing to allow innovation space to grow and blossom.

This week, we’re diving in and seeing what it all means to you, your business, your industry, and your future as an innovative organization in an innovation ecosystem.

As we considered the idea of the innovation ecosystem, we recognized four main areas of implications for our clients and for you and your organization...

Innovation Ecosystems: A new way of seeing (Part 1)

As Victor Hwang wrote in a Forbes article last April (2014), “…in actuality there aren’t many new business ideas. Most of the time we just slap new labels on old things.”

So we when we hear or read about an actual new idea, it’s time for us to sit up, take notice and think about what makes it a new idea and the implications and applications of the idea. The new idea is the term from the natural world “ecosystem”, as applied to the term “business ecosystem, and more importantly for our consideration, the “Innovation Ecosystem”.

Hwang notes that the term seemingly “spikes out of nowhere” when looked at using Google’s NGRAM viewer and phrase search trends around 2007  (the actual charts are in Hwang's article). Interestingly, the phrase “innovation ecosystem” began trending in Google searches in late 2010 and continues today.

When we considered the concept, read more about it, and talked about with our partners and clients, the application of the natural world concept of an ecosystem applied to innovation has some very real questions and implications for organizations in

• How they approach innovation,
• The design of their innovation programs,
• How they manage their innovation process, and
• Where their innovation ideas come from.

At Last: A Practical Guide to Knowledge Management

Rarely does a book come along that cuts through theory and manifesto, synthesizing insights, research and applied learning into something that is practical, eminently useful, and indispensible: Judi Sandrock’s “The Art of Managing Knowledge” does just that.

Judi's  book provides a road map to either start a KM program from scratch, or use well defined processes and tools to conduct a diagnostic on an existing program – fine  tuning for our current times of uncertainty.

This is a must have book on your working shelf, to be used as a day to day guide, as well as a guide to how KM really should work, how to avoid traps and pitfalls, and as a practical and pragmatic “this is how you do that” from proven, successful application.

Not yet available on Amazon (we understand the second printing will be), contact Judi here for your copy.

Thriving in the Age of Complexity - With no answers, only choices

You are hearing more and more that the current recession has bottomed out, that the economic crisis is easing as job losses slow and we are beginning to see confidence return to the marketplace.  This is good news indeed as we turn from survival and begin to look forward.

 Nevertheless, the global business environment is becoming more and more interconnected and complex.

The future will see new uncertainties, ambiguities and even more surprises.  Our world is acting as a complex system, and what we are now experiencing is just a taste of what will undoubtedly come.

Personal Work Space: to Order, or not to Order?

Since I posted "To Study, Perchance to Dream?" on April 29th,  I have received a number of email and phone comments - enough to know I am not the only one thinking about the issue of personal work space, and how to deal with it, especially in the home.

I came across this article, "An Orderly Office? That's Personal" by Sara Rimer in the New York Times (and yes, it was in one of those "stacks" in a very neat blue file folder, along with some others I had forgotten about!). A well narrated story of one person's struggle, considerations, discoveries and solution.  It rang true for me, and I bet it will for most of you all too. Enjoy!

To Study, Perchance to Dream?

I was reading in my den a few nights ago and realized I had stacks of papers, articles, books and magazines lying in a semi-circle around my chair.  Looking around, I noticed that I had two “current reading” folders of things printed off the Web (I still like to read off paper) brought down from my upstairs office.

And these weren’t just the typical current reading one usually has lying around the favorite chair – some of them were more than three months old.  I realized this when my wife hinted rather subtly that perhaps it was time to shorten the stacks, or better yet, move them to the upstairs office – something about dusting and vacuuming being hindered by the piles (now no longer “stacks”).

I thought I should go upstairs and make room before I started the heavy lifting (yep, there was that much).  To my surprise, I had no reading of any kind on my desk, only client, project and other files I was working on.  Even I could see that something’s going on here I hadn’t thought about before.

An Open Letter: Leadership and Strategy in the Crisis

January 5, 2009

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

Significant changes in your environment require an immediate strategic review to refocus your competitive advantage.  Strategy is all about future differences, creating your future, the competitive difference you can bring, and how you identify and take advantage of the resulting new opportunities.  In this economic crisis, in this critical moment, how you chose to act and respond will have far reaching impacts for you and your organization.

Now is the time for reconsidered strategy - for your organization, your business units, and your alliances and partnerships – creating precise actions aligned with that strategy, with an eye ready to see the opportunities that are clearly beginning to emerge.

While the jury is out on how long this crisis will continue, one thing is sure:  The world simply will not look nor act the same afterwards.

The Pervasive Expectations of Instantaneous Response

As communications speed up, driven by technology advancements, there is always a trade off - detail for speed, or speed for detail.  Most people opt for speed, which of course means little time for context and understanding.  And one thing critical for tight and concise communication and understanding over time, exformation (explicitly discarded information) doesn't really occur.

 

This means that the biggest issue for technology improved communications (more speed seems to be the choice and  emphasis),  is that there is less and less understanding of what is being communicated faster and faster, with still the expectation of instantaneous response.

 

This is just one of the implications of the pervasive pressure of Expectations of Instantaneous Response.

Knowledge Tense: Past, Present and Future

One of the concepts Steve Barth and I have been developing is the idea of Knowledge Tense. We spoke to it at KM World in 2007, and then again I used it in the context of innovation at KM World 2008 in a workshop.

We wanted to distinguish between past, present and future tense knowledge, not having seen or heard this distinction before. Needless to say, we are just beginning to think about knowledge this way. 

Increased Innovation Flows through Collaborative Innovation Architecture

I’ll be leading a 3-hour workshop on how knowledge management professionals can facilitate the innovation processes in their organizations at the KM World 2008 Conference & Exhibition on Monday, September 22, from 1:30 – 4:30 pm.

The conference and exhibition runs September 22-25 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.

Facilitating the creation and flow of present and future knowledge in support of innovation is a key process for most organizations. KM managers and practitioners are in unique positions to facilitate this knowledge creation and flow—when they have the right perspective, tools and techniques.

Using collaborative innovation architecture, this workshop explores the innovation process; maps tools and techniques between innovation and KM; and creates templates, checklists, and models. By using real-world examples and those from the participants, the workshop group works through selected critical components of the architecture, providing real and immediate applications for their organizations.