Business eco-systems and a culture of innovation

KM Asia, Hong Kong 18 Nov 2015

–George Box, Statistician, 1976

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”

Dave Snowden: Cynefin Model

https://youtu.be/IGQmdoK_ZfY

“Inattentional blindness.” Arien Mack and Irvin Rock in 1992, MIT Press 1998

Incite a culture of challenging the status quo and “having a go”

Change

–Richard Seeley, Emergence in Organisations, 2003

“Emergence is a key property of complex systems. It is also, many believe, the key to

fundamental change in human organisations.

….. while emergence is neither predictable nor controllable there are some factors which

predispose an organisation towards emergent change. ….

these factors can be ‘tuned’ in such a way that not only is the emergence of new patterns

made more likely but also that these patterns will be similar to the patterns which are desired

by the members of the organisation.”

Seeding EmergenceProcess

Everyone speaks with many others

Relevant & ‘irrelevant’ inputs

Many short ‘rounds’, iterative, agile

Safe, egalitarian environment

Freedom within a framework, set a deadline, tight time-keepingCompelling vision,

Sit with discomfort and apparent inaction

Conditions for emergence

Connectivity

Diversity

Rate of information flow

Lack of inhibitors

Good boundaries

Intention, positive interaction

Watchful anticipation

Push ( directed, controlled) Pull ( emergent)

Organised in ‘silos’ of accountability

1. Build connectivity

Ensure everyone ‘salutes the flag’ 2. Encourage diversity

Manage communication messaging 3. Have conversations in corridors

Consistent bureaucratic processes 4. Acknowledge & deal with ambiguity

Appointed leader is in charge 5. Give everyone an opportunity to lead

Announce new changes 6. Seek input on change

Tell people what to do 7. Tell people what not to do ( boundaries)

Specified objectives and KPIs 8. Agree energising goals, set deadlines

Blame people for failures 9. Learn from events

Micro-manage & steer 10. Watchful and patient anticipation

Emergent design for innovation culture transformation

“The only sustainable competitive advantage is to learn faster than the competition”

Typical L&D investment

From Hierarchy to Wirearchy - credit Jon Husband, 1998

Show and Share EXPO

AMP’s petri-dish for experimentation

From Corporate HQ to festival of learning

Online ideas challenges

Creativity Partnerships

Impact

Old Change/ New change

The new UNICORNS

“Torn Between Two Worlds

“Today, leaders and change makers across all institutions are torn between worlds: On the one hand they are confronted with a set of unprecedented 21st- century leadership challenges;

and on the other they find themselves equipped with a 20th-century management toolkit that is inadequate to fix the problems they face.

Between these two worlds there yawns a wide chasm that today’s leaders struggle to bridge.”

– Otta Scharmer, MIT

Thank you