Perspectives on Innovation

In a thought provoking blog post last week, New York Times Dot Earth blogger Andrew Revkin discusses the question currently on the table about whether Obama should consider creating a cabinet-level Department of Innovation.  A lively discussion followed in the comments to Andrew’s post.  InnoCentive founder Alph Bingham wrote the following:

I ask myself, as Revkin does, if more bureaucracy is in the best interest of innovation. (Although, I fundamentally agree with Block’s cogent assessment and the basic tenets of his white paper). I have watched the proliferation of the “CXO” in the corporate world where X = knowledge, compliance, quality, innovation, integrity, etc. In most cases I prefer that the trait/skill/intent be baked in to the leadership choices.

In simple terms I hope that President Obama makes every critical appointment and selects EVERY cabinet member on the basis of their ability to be inventive, to explore new ideas and new processes and to make those ideas impactful to the lives of all humanity: to innovate.

It’s an exciting world and an exciting time. Some of the innovation we hope for has been demonstrated in the new processes that distinguished the Obama campaign and its ultimate effectiveness. The notion that ideas – like funding – can come from new sources and be widely distributed among the population is evident in the President-elect’s open call for input — http://change.gov/ (linked in this blog).

My personal experience with new modes of open innovation have shown the unprecedented effectiveness of this approach. At the same time, the empowerment of new voices, MANY new voices, needs new ears to listen and to integrate into implementable actions.

Not only is this a time calling for innovation but one calling for “meta-innovation” – innovating on the ways we innovate. In our connected world, we can place an open call for new approaches and new solutions and generate incredible diversity. (www.innnocentive.com) Of course, knowing which questions to ask (at the level where progress occurs) remains the rate-limiting skill. Now that we can openly source answers, lets focus America’s innovation talent on the scarce resource, “asking the right questions.”
-alph-

— alph bingham, waltham, ma

What do you think?  Would adding another cabinet-level department add unneeded bureacracy without  much actual resulting innovation?  Would the country be better off seeking more innovators for all appointments?  Or is a Department of Innovation the best way to ensure that innovation is highly prioritized on the President’s agenda?   Tell us in the comments!

I recently interviewed Scott Pegau, Director of the Oil Spill Recover Institute (OSRI) in Cordova Alaska. OSRI was created by the government in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and has been tasked with improving oil spill response in Arctic and subarctic marine waters. As you may know, OSRI has posted several Challenges on the InnoCentive website, including the Challenge, recently made famous by the New York Times, to separate oil from water in recovery barges. That Challenge was solved by John Davis, an oil-industry outsider. We find that many of the best solutions on our network come from outside the industry in which they are posted.

Liz Moise:
Scott, tell me – how long had you been working on this particular Challenge before coming to InnoCentive, and what other avenues did you pursue before coming to us for help with this problem?

Scott Pegau:
Actually, the process of setting up a prize program predates my arrival at OSRI.  The idea had been kicked around for a couple years, but hadn’t fully developed because of the need to ensure the program was properly run and advertised.  Once InnoCentive was identified as a mechanism to post and manage challenges we started to actually draft the concepts that have become the challenges we have released.

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Liz Moise:
I’m joined by Dr. Karim R. Lakhani, Professor at Harvard Business School. Dr. Lakhani, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. You’ve watched InnoCentive grow for quite a few years now. I’m sure our Solvers may be familiar with your research study, published a few years back. Could you tell me in a few sentences, what your conclusions were on InnoCentive, in that study?

Dr. Karim Lakhani:
I worked with Lars Bo Jeppesen from the Copenhagen Business School along with InnoCentive staff to understand the effectiveness of the problem solving process at InnoCentive.

Most problem solving involves effort by the problem holder to search for the relevant knowledge that will help create an effective and workable solution. However, many studies have shown that this search for knowledge is quite “local,” i.e. problem holders only access knowledge that they are familiar with and rarely do they go outside of their fixed views of the problem or personal knowledge bases. With InnoCentive – the problem holder is actually doing a “broadcast search,” i.e. they broadcast their solution requirements to the whole world – with the hopes of finding someone that has the relevant knowledge that can help create the solution. The problem holder goes from being a problem Solver to a solution seeker.

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The New York Times today published a great piece on InnoCentive, featuring our own John Davis, among others. If You Have a Problem, Ask Everyone. This is a great sign that Open Innovation is really starting to catch on with the mainstream audience. What a great testament to the brilliance of our Solver network.