The keynote speaker, as head of one Canada’s top research organizations for the humanities, spoke about: “Tackling the World’s Toughest Challenges: Social Innovation for the 21rst Century.”
The first is to do identify where big thinkers learn to think big? Pursuant to that is what is knowledge creation?
Working toward answers the speaker had three convictions:
1) Perspectives are coming together:
- The distinctions between innovation and social innovation are giving way to integration through collaboration
2) There have been internal pressures for increased contributions from multiple areas
- Scholars, researchers, etc, and,
3) There are many reasons for optimism.
The need exists to move from talking points and start engaging in meaningful actions to address the challenges currently existent. Actions looking beyond products and services – deeply into all areas where integration and collaboration is of benefit.
Models from the past revealed their flaws and offer an opportunity to course correct. Specifically the linear push model as illustrated by tech transfer in 1970s Canada. What is learned from the weakness of that model? How can it be incorporated into new models and policies to prevent its repeat?
The Tech Transfer model had some successes and may still have some today, specifically in the developing world. Yet it is clear that the model did not work well in the developed world. This is especially true with the rise of the informed consumer class. One that became involved in the model and now in many ways is pulling products and services through increased demands. The consumer class as driver has replaced the top down example of tech transfer.
Building upon and beyond past failures is allowing us to work toward the future that we desire. However, to do this we must build sustainable relationships and models, across all sectors that recognize that society, ergo people, matter.
Increasingly technology and society are more integrated and this must be true for our research and development if as a nation we are to remain competitive and productive. Moreover, we have the opportunity, to become a world leader with successful efforts toward greater social innovations.
Realizing it is essential for a fundamental rethinking of the economy, its pillars both in Canada and across the world. This rethinking should acknowledge that social innovation must become a central strategy for all society if we are to move toward the desired future and achieve our stated outcomes. Utilizing this strategy in China and India has lead to many important advances.
Once notional understandings of the triple bottom line are becoming hard and fast reality – people, planet and profit. Organizations failing to understand or take action with regard to finding sustainable courses through this lens will find initial hardships leading to much harsher outcomes including redundancy.
These concepts are a work in progress requiring detailed outward looking from universities, researchers, scholars, government, business and communities themselves. At present this is a resource intensive process of engagement, yet with technological advancement and the discovery of new efficiencies that will dissipate.
There needs to be an increase in the mobilization of knowledge. Opportunities exist for deeper involvement in collaboration leading to richer innovations resulting in improved quality of life.
It is important to identify areas that can be clustered and create hubs (SiG, MaRS), where program architectures, across all sectors of research and development can be updated, simplified and executed. This is already evident in large research organization that are deconstructing old program silos and creating umbrellas instead.
This requires a new, fresh and inspired vocabulary that leads to a hybrid of pure and applied research where appropriate as well as further dismantling of hierarchies that are antiquated or worse redundant.
We all want to improve our seeking new ways to be more inclusive, integrated and collaborative. There is a pressing need for communication with non-specialized groups that becomes even more paramount as the digital age has presented itself as a driver for increased collaboration and communication.
Focusing on best practices will not necessarily lead us to next practices. These will result from the development of that new vocabulary, increased collaboration and innovation.
In that way ‘open source’ offers a key for the future. A clarion call that we not only aspire to but work toward every day. Naturally, in breaking down of barriers and deeper integrations, the urgency to embrace innovation will become clearer.
The enemy of advance in these areas is apathy and ignorance. Breaking down those barriers will create new opportunities to address that enemy head on and march toward advancements in innovation.
It is incumbent upon social innovators across all sectors to catch this moment of hope and history. To do so requires all sectors to come together effectively.
Harkening back to the progress of the Enlightenment and the advancement of knowledge that resulted from that period in history we are witnessing a modern enlightenment that is removing the obstacles and barriers to increased production of knowledge.
Initial collaborating across sectors is leading to rapid knowledge co-creation and is requiring us to find processes and systems to keep pace with technology laying the foundations of the future more concretely now.
Solid foundations require processes that are built upon accountability and transparency. The worst thing that could happen now is that unaccountable progress could hamper efforts due to some type of scandal involving the transparency of processes.
Part of the foundation has to be an effort to identify new metrics that are widely applicable. Those metrics need to identify both the quantitative measurements that are necessary while balancing them with the qualitative that are not so readily measureable. The foundation requires that concurrent with the development of the language that will be used and widely accepted so too will metrics.
This new paradigm recognizes that certain research hubs (government) were not necessarily involved in the innovation discussion and further that there needs to be a collaborative back and forth across all sectors for true innovations to occur more simply, quickly and effectively.
In a recent speech at the Economic Club, the University of Toronto President said: “For one, I believe it is fully within our capabilities to move from mediocrity to excellence in innovation. Making the necessary changes to build an innovation economy is our shared and urgent responsibility if we are to secure the prosperity of future generations in this great country.” David Naylor
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