How to Deliver Breakthrough, Disruptive Social Innovations

Radically Reinventing the Future
How to Co-create Breakthrough Purpose-Driven Innovations

a wecreate innovation paper

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so,
almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
G.K. Galbraith

The smallest idea is a resilient virus, it can grow to define or destroy you.
Inception, The Movie

Contents

Background

Orientation: Preparing to Venture Forth

Breakthrough Innovation as Practical Philosophy

Leveraging Our Social Imagination

Designing For Breakthrough Innovation in Complex Contexts

The Breakthrough Effect

Process & Tools

From Process to Pitch: Telling Breakthrough Innovation & Impact Stories

The WECREATE Innovation & Impact Story Engine

From Talk to Trouser: Emergent Execution

Mindset & Culture

Learning Through Doing, Doing Through Learning

Innovation Templates Affording Collective Creativity & Team Empowerment

Further Reading & References

Background

Social innovations: Innovations that are social both in their ends and in their means.
Specifically new products, services and models that simultaneously meet social needs and
create new social relationships or collaborations. In other words, they are innovations that are
both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act.
Murray et al (2010)

In 2010 we launched a white paper on ‘radical’ or ‘disruptive’ social innovations, and why we see

so few of them. It was called ‘Radical Reinvention: 20 reasons why we don’t see more systemic
social innovations and how to overcome these barriers’. In just under a year it has been read by

over 2,000 of the world’s leading practitioners of social innovation; quoted in published journals

and referenced around the globe.

Since then we have been asked by many people, practitioners most of all, to go beyond a white
paper, beyond analysis and thought, beyond obstacles and barriers, and move the conversation

towards the practical processes for generating disruptive social innovations with teams.

To that end, we have set out in this document to capture the tools, techniques and frameworks

that we find invaluable on the journey of radical social innovation. The process is not meant to
be definitive; for having an intention to generate radical social innovation is just the starting-

point on an explorative journey to both the heart of the socio-economic system and our ideas

and ideals about human nature. Therefore, the approach we use is alive. It is emergent - just as
the innovations we aim to co-create with our partners and clients are alive and emergent,

because society and the individuals within it are alive and in a constant state of transition and
transformation. However, over many years of working in this space, we have discovered some

tools; techniques that tend to move us onwards faster and smoother than others. When these

are put together in a specific order - a process or framework - we can take a team or
collaborative partnership on this journey with minimal tension, risk-aversion and stress.

Orientation: Preparing to Venture Forth

The only way we are going to put out the fire is to get on the social justice bus and heal our
wounds because, in the end, there is only one bus. Sometimes entrepreneurs need to learn to
be quiet passengers on this bus. Sometimes we’ll take our turn at the wheel, sometimes we’ll
be the mechanic. But all of us need to get on the social-justice bus. That’s the bus on which
the real sustainable, green movement will be traveling. Don’t get on the chartered plane.
John Hawkins & John Farmer

Be patient toward everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions
themselves... the point is to live everything... live the questions now.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Whenever we set out with the intent to generate a breakthrough, we must necessarily venture
forth where few have ventured before. We begin a quest into what complexity theorist Stuart

Kaufmann calls the ‘adjacent possible’. This space contains all the innovations possible with the

current set of ‘ingredients’ (ideas). As we make new connections between these previously
disparate and dissipated ideas, we encroach on this ‘adjacent possible’, turning it through our

will and creativity into the actual, the here and now. As we do so, the ‘adjacent possible’ expands
and thus more opportunities and potentialities come into being. Each innovation we realize

within the web of networks that connect up ‘change-makers’ increases the potential for future

ideas to be brought to life by other innovators in other places and times.

However, if the terrain of the ‘adjacent possible’ was well-known and the answers close at hand,
then there would be no need to find a radical or systemic solution, for somebody else would have

solved the problem already. If this was easy, and the process was simple and risk-free, then

those solutions would be readily available. That means every time a team coalesces around an
intention of this ilk we will be acting as literal pathfinders, those who find the path where there

is none. We have to journey to explore the origins - the root causes - of our social, environmental
or political problems and co-create a suite of innovations that, when taken together, we believe

will shift the system we are in to its ‘preferred’ state - the state we think will create the
conditions for least suffering, and most flourishing, for the people, cultures and ecosystems that

inhabit that system.

As we set out on this journey, we must lead creatively, morally and emotionally. It pays to

approach innovation, social innovation above all, with a gushing wellspring of humility.
Consider how much breakthrough innovation has occurred in Egypt in 2011 without much

centralized strategy or ‘aid’ from well-meaning diplomats, development agencies or social
innovators. And consider how much damage we do to the Egyptian economy - with its powerful

cotton production industry - every time we ship container loads of our used T-shirts over there

‘because we want to help’. Before we elevate ourselves to agents of change, intervening positively
and powerfully in the lives of others, it is incumbent on us to delve into our motives for doing so.

Often we find that hidden beneath our commitment to ‘do good’ are motives, whether conscious
or not, that stem from our own psycho-social histories. This personal stake can be harnessed

very powerfully if it is brought to attention, acting as a tremendous driver of creativity and

effort. However it can also mean that our intellectual rigor is perverted by hidden assumptions,
and the ‘animal spirits’ that energize them, which can lead to interventions being brought into

existence that contain within them inaccurate ideas and ideals. The interventions we orchestrate
can do as much damage, if not more, than doing nothing (cf. Easterly and many others on the

negative impact of aid and development). It is vital, therefore, that we have clarity of our inner

drives and our internal ‘emotional guidance system’ (cf. Damasio and the necessity of emotions
in all decision-making) before we set out. Coaching and contemplation can play a valuable part

in keeping us honest and humble as we take it upon ourselves to ‘save’ other people, many of
whom may not want (or even need) ‘saving’.

Unless we are prepared to go this deep - to the foundations of the current system and our part
within it - our advice is to go no further. For then we would be acting without full awareness of

how our actions are profoundly connected to and originate with our ideas / ideals. Whether we
like it or not, all interventions, all change programs - and therefore all change agents - have

inherent in them a ‘model of change’. Like a DNA code that generates proteins, every model of
change is generated by a set of assumptions, most importantly about human nature. No matter

how simple or innocuous the intervention, there will always be an assumption lurking beneath
the surface. Those assumptions, when challenged, become the key to breakthrough innovation.

However most change agents - whether social innovators, social entrepreneurs, policy advisors

or politicians - do not realize this and do not uncover their own model of change. The impact of
this ignorance is important. It makes comparing programs and policies hard. It makes effective

collaboration even harder. And it makes strategic innovation towards systemic change virtually
impossible. Above all, it leads to damage being done - usually unwittingly - in the name of

change and social impact. We need only look at the centrally planned societies of the

Communist era to see this in stark black and white. We believe that all change agents must be
supremely aware that we are in a very ambiguous position of power and potential. The only way

to prevent negative impact is to keep on drilling down to our own assumptions, to challenge
them, and see how this might generate both desired breakthroughs and, perhaps, unexpected

returns.

Breakthrough Innovation as Practical Philosophy

We still have not seen much movement on... the deep systemic issues that cause the current
cluster of crisis symptoms to be reproduced time and again. I believe that the most important
root issue of the current crisis is our thinking: how we collectively think.
C Otto Scharmer, Professor MIT, Oxford Leadership Journal

In Aristotle’s words phronesis is a "true state, reasoned, and capable of action with regard to
things that are good or bad for man. Phronesis goes beyond both analytical, scientific
knowledge (episteme) and technical knowledge or know-how (techne) and involves
judgments and decisions made in the manner of a virtuoso social and political actor.
Bent Flyvbjerg, Oxford University

Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.
Albert Einstein

As suggested, on the journey of discovery incumbent in breakthrough social innovation we must
be prepared to penetrate to the ‘hidden order of things’ with a keen intellect that is not held in

sway by the myths and assumptions - what Plato called the ‘convenient lies’ - that hypnotize
others. These assumptions tend to ensure that status quo is maintained. Systemic change cannot

occur without a shift in the ruling paradigm of the day, no matter how well it is defended by the

stalwarts whose lives - and above all livelihoods - are so often protected by it. Virtually
everything we think will, by nature of our immersion in it, be part of the ruling paradigm. This

thinking inevitably leads to incremental change. Such change is useful and often powerful, but
invariably focused on symptoms rather than root causes. To transform the system we must

transform how we think. It is our central tenet that the root causes of all lasting social and

environmental crises are - by nature of social systems being simply manifestations of our
collective beliefs and behaviors - ‘philosophical’.

Philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom. Practical philosophy (or ‘phronesis’ if you like to read
Aristotle) is the application of that wisdom to real-world challenges. Most importantly, it is

penetrating to the core of our ‘thinking’ to explore why our ‘doing’ is or is not working optimally.

Philosophers are the most creative people on the planet. Whether we see them today in the guise

of a Frank Gehry, rethinking how buildings can be put together, or an Al Gore, re- forming how
we can use film to change the world, philosophers trade in ideas. They know that ideas come

first, and that ideas - once released from their source in the individual and collective mind -
become tangible, touchable things;art galleries, movies, bank branches or bank notes. In fact,

every single invention known to man – from the horse and cart to the Human Genome Project;

from the moves of Kung Fu to the NASDAQ – was at one point an idea in someone’s head.
Wherever they have come from, ideas are the most powerful things on earth. They can open

doors of glittering possibility and free one forever from false assumptions; or they can lock one
away for years in suffering and misery. They can burst joyfully into our minds like fireworks,

lighting up all in their path; or they can be ‘mind-forged manacles’, condemning us, and our

fellow man, to a life of servitude and slavery.

All our societies and cultures are based upon ideas, the most important ones being the beliefs
and assumptions that lie behind all human behaviors, and the systems that crystallize around

them. Whilst this may seem at first concerning, it also means that we have the potential to create

new behaviors and new realities if – and it’s a big ‘if’ – we are prepared to transform our original
beliefs and assumptions. The ideas that have created our current economic crises and the abject

poverty and suffering that surrounds us, can all be changed. The ideas that have created CFCs
and 4X4s can all be changed, and along with them the problems that they have wrought. No

matter how awful things get, if we are brave enough to change our ideas, then we can change

whatever problems we will see out there in the world. In the immortal words of George Clinton
and the band Parliament, ‘free our minds and our asses will follow’. Change our ideas and we

can change the world around us - nothing needs to stay the way it is forever. It can only ever be
this kind of free and open-minded thinking that drive the big changes that race humanity

towards a brighter future.

As our foundational assumptions about life, the world and our role in it continue to create the

mess we are in right now, it is up to us all to work hard to expose the individual and collective
blind spots that wreak such havoc within the environment, the economy and the global

community - and replacing them with ideas and beliefs that work for all of us. When we leave

this to the economists, politicians, psychologists and scientists – most of whose livelihoods are
so intrinsically bound to the problems we are attempting to solve that they are often rendered

blind to the changes – we devolve our responsibilities for our own lives and that of our
neighbors. When we leave the wisdom that guides us to other people to worry about, humanity

as a whole suffers. Democracy demands that we all become versed in the ideas and assumptions

upon which our lives are built, and that we are all prepared to demolish the ideas that are, on
deep reflection, no longer needed in our world.

Before we can begin to have new ideas for radical and transformative innovations, we must first

be prepared to let go of the old ones, no matter how cherished and convenient they are. The

greatest innovators of our time have only been able to create their radical innovations - the
incredible iMac, the astonishing Wolfram Alpha, the essential Easy Jet, the wonderful

Worldwide Web, the hard-working NHS Direct, the astounding Netflix, the superb Zopa.com -
by first letting go of the old ideas that kept their industries and sectors serving the interests of

those in positions of power and domination. All breakthrough innovation - social more than all

others - is premised on being able to free ourselves from the chains of our own assumptions so
that we can radically reinvent the future with clarity and creative panache.

This may sound a bit heady, intellectual or even a tad ‘woo woo’. Assuming you read on, we hope

you will begin to see that this kind of philosophy does not require a Harvard degree; merely the

willingness to probe deeper and deeper into the root causes of the symptoms we see around us -
whether pain, poverty or degradation - to find the origins of them, both inside ourselves and in

our societies. We must have the courage to see them for what they are. As we do, we may need to
coin new words. Not to inflate our egos or sound smarter than we are (and charge handsomely

for it), but because when searching for breakthrough ideas we must first see things differently,

we must first think differently. If we use old concepts, they will limit us. Old ideas, old terms,
pull our minds back to old solutions. We must therefore discern new patterns, new concepts,

and use emerging terminology to share them and communicate them.

So far from avoid philosophical dialogue as is the tendency in ‘polite’ change-maker circles, we

urge you to discover your assumptions and your model of change, to speak about them with
openness so others can engage with them and try it on for size, and gain the skills needed to

empathically and smartly probe the model of change of others. We feel that it is our most
solemn duty to do this, with and for each other. It is only when we can do this that we can

intervene with potent impact - and can do so with mindful awareness of how our thoughts,

beliefs and myths impact how we act and how we impact others.

Leveraging Our Social Imagination

If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are not able
to manage your distressing emotions, if you can't have empathy and have effective
relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.
Daniel Goleman

The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.
Joanna Macy

When envisioning a new future for a community, it is vital that we tap into what we can call our

‘social imagination’ - prioritizing ways to maximize the collective creativity of the team. To have
a powerful vision of what is possible we must tap into the three sources of knowledge available

to humankind:

‣ Evidence and experience: We reflect on our lived experience, and the sum total of the
experiences lived by the team. We look for patterns. We test out hypotheses with

experimental evidence. And we build a knowledge bank based on the results. This is the
kind of thinking that most science is based on.

‣ Conceptual thinking and analysis: Based on our capacity for abstract thought using our

intellect. We can apply complex theories to the world around us and abstract insights
from it. This is what theoretical physicists do.

‣ Intuition and the ‘flash of genius’. This third kind of knowledge has, until recently that is,
been critiqued mercilessly in management thinking. However, much recent research has

shown how intuition (as well as its less refined sibling instinct) is used by successful

leaders to envision the future and make great decisions. This is the kind of thinking that
artists, brilliant scientists and creative visionaries use to break through.

When each individual builds their capacity to engage in fluid creative thinking within and
between these types of knowledge, their innovation potential becomes keen. To bring this to

bear in the social space it is also vital to add in the development of compassion, continuously
expanding our circles of empathy to include more and more people, animals and things in

nature. As we build our ability to engage our social imagination, we must also become ever

better at listening. This means listening intently to each other’s ideas, not just to argue and
deflect, but to find the nuggets of gold in any idea or opinions and be able to piggy-back on them

to create more innovations. This is what physicist David Bohm calls the shift from discussion
(exchanging ideas to persuade the other we are right) to dialogue (open minded conversation

where we look to find the truth between us). When we listen to others as if we are listening for

the best in them, then we are truly engaging in co-creativity. A parallel to this is the Hindu
greeting of Namaste - which can be thought of as ‘the best part of me sees and greets the best

part of you’.

Listening to ourselves and our own inner voice is also crucial, for often we sense the ‘answer’

before our mental faculties can catch-up. If our critical and cynical tendencies jump in too fast,
we risk great ideas forever escaping us. Researchers have likened the innovation act to the first

few steps of a toddler - it is similarly sensitive and vulnerable to external force. Therefore it is
effective to apply the compassion we are honing to ourselves and our team as much as the

people (and planet) whose lives we hope to make better.

Designing For Breakthrough Innovation in Complex Contexts

Tools and systematic approaches borrowed from the technological and commercial
innovation paradigms can be successfully appropriated and applied to the process of
identifying and scaling up socially innovative opportunities.
Dominic Chalmers , Why Social Innovators Should Embrace the ‘Open’ Paradigm

Thinking more deeply about institutions and complexity raises major dilemmas for
development interventions. On the one hand, tackling poverty, achieving social justice and
protecting the environment clearly require institutional transformation. On the other, institutions
cannot be effectively changed in a neatly planned, top-down manner.
Jim Woodhill, Capacities for Institutional Innovation: A Complexity Perspective

As we will discuss below (and in the WECREATE INNOVATION paper entitled ‘Designing for
Co-Creation, 2010) a culture and practice of innovation is always more powerful than a process,

no matter how well it is conceived. That said, a tried-and-tested process has the distinct

advantage of ensuring that certain important factors and dynamics are considered; that steps
are taken in a reasonably intelligent order; and - perhaps most importantly - that the team

involved increases their tolerance of ambiguity, so essential in all innovation, because they trust
a process and a process expert. We often leverage the tools and approaches below at core points

in a process. However, different tools can - and often should - be used in multiple points in a

journey. Most important is to realize that the tools are there to help answer the big questions.
They are not the answers to those questions. They can help us see a map, but they are never the

territory. Tools, no matter how flash they are, are simply smart ways of getting to the right
questions and the right set of potential and actual answers to those questions.

This process is linear; we progress down it according to a pre-agreed plan. However, outputs
from various stages can influence future and previous stages. It is now design and innovation

best-practice to allow, and encourage, such flexibility to ensure that as we venture forth we learn
as much as we predict.

Intention Sense Make & Strategy &
Collaborate Breakthrough Ideate Design & Refine
Set Engage

This kind of flexible and sophisticated process is most important when intervening in systems
that are neither static nor simple. In these kinds of systems, the old reliance on linear cause and

effect analysis, breaks down. So processes designed to analyze the situation using historic

numbers; categorize it using knowledge from the past; and respond using best-practice
generated in the past simply do not work. We understand the world is ‘complex’ - neither

completely static and orderly, nor completely chaotic and disorderly. The social systems we want
to intervene in are interconnected; intertwined; dynamically not in equilibrium. So therefore we

need to develop a process - and toolset - that allows us to engage in this complexity sensibly with

a focus on outcomes yet at the same time unafraid to explore the realms of the unknown.

The Breakthrough Effect

As we move from certainty into ambiguity we access creativity and open up the ‘breakthrough

effect’. As we move away from the old organizing system into our assumptions and intuitions we
loosen its grip on us and afford ourselves the potential to breakthrough. But once we have had

the creative leap it is time to move back towards certainty by co-creating a new organizing

system which aims to create more order - carved by our collective will - that alleviates the
suffering of others. The question is always: How deep are you prepared to go to find

breakthrough solutions?

The Process & Tools

Below we outline the process stages we use, the existing tools leveraged within each, the roles
they play and the outputs we expect. Where relevant we share what we have found about their

limitations and how we have iterated and improved them as much as possible to overcome these
weaknesses.

Intention Setting

Before a team begins any process of innovation, it is vital that all are convened around a set
of shared intentions - within the global, local and institutional contexts. In this conversation it
is important to explore the real scope and the appetite for innovation. For example, a
Process
project that coalesces around an intention focused on radical, or systemic, innovation will
Stage
have a very different character, experience and output than one convened around more
incremental innovation goals. Likewise our beliefs about how change happens are
important to table early on if we want to maximize the quality of our collective efforts with
minimal disagreement.

Tools Cynefin Model & Scenario Planning

The Cynefin model, developed as a leading-edge management practice by IBM strategists,
can be very helpful in setting intentions and project types. It identifies five contexts: simple,
complicated, complex, chaotic and disorder into which all interventions will be launched.
This reflects the reality that some social innovation contexts are simple; sometimes the
solutions are relatively well understood even if the context makes the implementation of
them complicated. Many environments are complex, some chaotic. And a few in total
disorder. Cynefin is wonderful at showing that approaches that work for simple and
Role complicated situations will fail when applied to complex and chaotic environments. So
(Cynefin) many public and third sector institutions like to define ‘best’ and ‘good’ practices. This works
for more simple and complicated contexts. But it becomes relatively meaningless for a
more complex problem where a radical or systemic innovation is needed. These, by nature,
have little or no precedence. In such complex contexts, the kind of linear thinking that is
celebrated in conventional physics - that believes in clear cause and effect relationships -
breaks down. Systems thinking (see below) can then help us to navigate these unchartered
waters. Rapid protoyping of ideas (see Human-Centered Design below) can also help us
develop best-practice for new contexts. Thus we can use Cynefin to ensure that the wider
team (including those from other organizations invited in to ‘openly’ innovate) has a shared
understanding of the type of project that is being launched, and the likely experience of this
project as having moments of perhaps uncomfortable ambiguity and necessary brain-
teasing as we collectively attempt to grapple with complex and chaotic situations.

As with all complex strategy tools, too much time can be spent on the strategic process and
Improvements not enough of co-creating and co-implementing ideas in the real world. Therefore Cynefin
(Cynefin) ‘lite’ can be a useful addition to an ignition workshop or initial planning session, in order to
surface any hidden assumptions about the simplicity and linearity of the context that some
people may be hiding (and which may well create major project disturbances at later
stages if not tackled early on).

Scenario Planning is a useful tool for this enabling context-driven this kind of thinking, and
Role
can be used powerfully to explore possible futures - often ‘projections’ of key uncertainties
(Scenario
and unknowns - and explore how different scenarios might necessitate a different strategic
Planning)
agenda to focus innovation on.

We have also developed a ‘lite’ version of scenario planning for those ofus in innovation
processes (initially for a global Unilever team). In this process (two days rather than two

Improvements years), we create scenarios in order to agree the directions in which to progress an
(Scenario innovation project. We can then use those scenarios after the concept-development stage
Planning) to generate a dynamic and ‘live’ innovation roadmap where different technologies, user
trends and other contextual factors key to eventual success can be brought into a strategic
conversation (by the various technical experts whose role it is so spot and make sense of
them) so that the core group can engage with the potential, likely and actual impact of
these external factors on strategy and execution.

Collaboration
If we want to achieve anything of any ambition - and transformative or systemic innovation
is definitely ambitious - no one organization or individual has the power (let alone
resources or insight) in a networked, globalized world to make it happen. Therefore we
need to collaborate. For many years innovation was (and still is in many cases) done by a
small number of power players within hierarchical, vertically-organized, organizations. This
was based upon the assumption that great organizations can bring the best people in
house. This approach relies on repeated excellence of conception and execution, and
Process deep, continuous and near perfect understanding of rapidly changing user attitudes and
Stage behaviors. This inevitably generates a high risk of failure, which will increase the more
disruptive the aim. Group think - the tendency for people to begin to think the same wen in
groups - is concretized by hierarchy. Mavericks and free-thinkers are shunned and
‘punished’ for defection from the received view. The more closed the innovation process - a
shut box - the less likely the team is to generate the ‘out of the box’ thinking so vital in
disrupting the status quo. The status quo is like it is for a reason. It is the manifestation of
the collective assumptions of those in power in the system. Thus more and more orgs are
realizing that closed, or at best semi-closed (e.g. ‘consultation’ procedures), innovation
process can be costly, slow, wasteful and lead to ineffective solutions, because the
necessary skills, insights, ideas, technologies and resources often lie outside the
organization.

Tools Open Social Innovation

‘Open innovation’ processes enable us to incorporate actors who may not traditionally be
seen as ‘stakeholders’ encouraging ‘lateral’ solutions and new combinations of solution to
emerge. By including a broader mix - suppliers, donors, funders, users, end-beneficiaries,
journalists, experts from allied fields, innovators of parallel innovations and ‘competitors’ -
we have the potential to develop more effective solutions, faster and cheaper than we
Role
could otherwise. This also levels the power imbalances found in the social space where
technical experts are accorded a better position in the hierarchy of change - which can
often ‘lock’ the problems in further (cf. Moore & Westley, 2010). Furthermore, If we harness
an open, collaborative innovation process we gain vital buy in and insight from powerful
and influential people that we will likely want to engage at some point if we are aiming for
systemic solutions at scale. Open Innovation can also prevent costly failures by including
key agents of change in the process from the start.

Finally more ambitious programs and projects can be Ideated if funders and ‘competitor’
agencies or enterprises are pooling their mental and economic resources to crack the
problem together, all having a stake in its success, and all having gone on some part of the
journey so their fears of risk and failure have been allayed as fully as possible.

Some more commercial open innovation processes can rely on the ‘wisdom of the crowd’
without providing as much value in return to the community. Research also suggests that it
is likely that purely economic or other extrinsic rewards for involvement can less the degree
of creativity and commitment. In the social arena, a well crafted vision (and ‘story’) for the
project - that inspires, engages and moves people - can hold attention powerfully and tap
into people’s deepest genius. We are also of the belief that for some parts of many projects,
the command-and-control type of management (associated with traditional hierarchies
and power structures) is valuable. This is a form of management where ‘things get done’
and ensures paralysis by committee does not creep in to reduce innovation efficacy.
Improvements However, this form of management must be balanced by a commitment to absolute
transparency and integrity if it is not to turn off the ‘crowd’ that has given its energy and
ideas to the process. We suggest that action groups (or better still, action-learning groups)
form from the wider team, and decision-making on smaller issues devolves to them. Here it
is vital that the personal leadership capabilities of the team have been built. Above all, a
commitment to radical responsibility is of the utmost importance. With this deeply
embedded moral compass and willingness to own problems and much as successes,
groups can be left to ‘self-organize’ as is seen to frequently in nature.

Sense Making
Innovators must have a unique and comprehensive view of the nature of the social
problems they want to tackle if they want to discover, let alone design, a systemic
innovation. As we noted above, the origins of most long-lasting social problems lie in the
deeper recesses of the system that create, and are created by, them. We must identify them

Process as best we can and agree what the desired system state it. Failure to do so means that we
Stage - at best - will fail in our ambitions, and - at worst - will create more problems than we
solve. We must also analyze where the ‘sweetspots’ are in the system, and which vested
interests and institutions need to be influenced or engaged to make the shift to the desired
system state.

Systems Thinking; Co-Creation Workshops; Dialoguing
Tools

Systems thinking is a profound tool and essential for systemic innovation generation. It
allows us to see complex dynamic issues with as much clarity as the human mind can
muster. Systems Thinking allows us to explore both the roots causes, or as we like to call
Role
them in this increasingly non-linear world, the ‘origins’ of our social issues, as well as how
various interventions are likely to impact that system in real-time, whether ‘positive’ or
‘negative’. Systems Maps, once drawn, are also extremely valuable for ensuring all
collaborators are on the same page, and talking about the same things. disproportionately
large impact on the system.

Systems Thinking can often become synonymous with dry, academic and overly complex
process. It is not uncommon for systems maps to be drawn up over months and years.
Data is plugged in. And then conversations ensue. For innovators and entrepreneurs, this
kind of analysis (and the paralysis that can emerge) are way too prohibitive in terms of cost,
time and expertise. Therefore we have developed away of ‘sketching’ out a systems map
Improvements
live with a collaborative team. The more diverse viewpoints the team includes, the more
likely we can sketch out a useful systems map quickly and painlessly that is robust enough
for innovation purposes. We also encourage teams to use illustrators to bring the systems
map tool life and allow it to be consulted online, and in a project room, to empower
conversations that are precise and pithy. Systems Thinking call also tend teams towards
incremental interventions and innovations that shift the system positively but slightly, still
maintaining the essential nature of the status quo. If we want radical innovations then we

need to get deep inside the ‘sweet spots’, and discover the assumptions and conventions
that are locking the system in place. Challenge those conventions with products or services
that are disruptive, and we have an increased probability of effecting massive change
quickly. In terms of advocacy and influencing, vital parts of most social innovation projects
(see ‘storytelling’ below), a systems approach can also include a power analysis (cf.
Oxfam’s Duncan Green). We also encourage clients to use the Systems Maps themselves in
real-time as project develop, to ensure conversations are rooted in context; and that
learning from intervention in one part of the system finds its way to other team members.
We suggest using a vizualizer to bring Systems Maps to life for communication,
engagement and storytelling - making them fun, engaging and above all as simple (but not
simplistic) as possible.

Breakthrough
The origins of most significant human problems are at their deepest level, mindsets,
beliefs and philosophies. It is only by penetrating to these hidden layers that we have any
chance of ‘dissolving’ away major problems permanently through innovation. This
requires that we have a breakthrough in our thinking. Together we must investigate the
Process Stage deepest and most profound root causes of the problem if we want transformative
change to occur. Our goal is to find assumptions and conventions that can be challenged
to reveal new insights and preferred truths (about human nature and what is possible)
that open up opportunities for bold and fresh ideas that have not been thought of before.

Tools The Breakthrough Switch

During the collaborative systems analysis experience, we use a causal layered analysis
to probe deep into the current reality to discover the deep causes at the heart of them. By

Role leveraging this powerful tool we can take en entire team on the journey to the heart of
their beliefs, and the beliefs of society, that generate the problems we want to tackle. For
so called ‘Wicked’ problems, this level of analysis is a sin qua non of any major impact.

The traditional causal layered analysis takes us on a journey from what we see in the
world, to the beliefs that lie at the origins of it. This does not necessarily lead to any
solutions being created. We have iterated the tool to take us back up the same path
again towards practical solutions. Our U-shaped tool (echoing the insights of Theory U),
helps a team experience the cognitive breakthrough - the precious A-Ha! moment -
which always occurs at the level of assumptions, ideas and beliefs - and then work back
up from the foundational insight to shape the kind of practical in-market solutions that
naturally emanate from that Eureka moment. Through this analysis we can breakthrough
Improvements
the pervading beliefs with a shift in consciousness. As Lettice and Parekh (2010) suggest,
most effective social innovation comes from a ‘re-expression’ of the problem in a new
way (e.g. from ‘people don’t want electric cars’ to ‘people don’t want ugly cars’). The re-
expression this tool enables moves the conversation on considerably. The insights in this
process then help the team to evaluate specific concepts further down the process and
ensure that they are tackling roots causes and not just the symptoms. It is challenging to
ensure that social innovation teams tackle the root cause not just the symptoms - as
discussed in the White Paper. This tool, along with the systems map, ensures that are
always in mind throughout.

Ideate

Now we have a conceptual breakthrough, we must move to create tangible value
propositions that deliver our new thinking as interventions. It is a vital principle to presence
during the process of ideation that most of our social and environmental problems - no
Process Stage matter how critical or pernicious - have already been ‘solved’ in some way or by someone.
That is to say the ingredients for even radical innovations are already out there in. So our
task is to subtract, add, substitute and recombine them into a new value proposition that
aligns with intentions for breakthrough innovation.

Tools The Breakthrough Switch. The Breakthrough Innovation Concept Template

We identify and analyze existing solutions that could be recombined (techniques,
technologies, infrastructure and organizational capabilities) to be more sustainable, usable,
accessible or cost-effective. We also learn from ‘positive deviants’ and ‘lead users’ who have
managed to solve these social problems themselves without intervention in innovative
ways . To understand which elements of each solution the end-users find most beneficial,
and to map these against cost, we can use a ‘Value Proposition Analysis’, which can be
elegantly explored and communicated visually in a graph format. Key to helping a team
generate the cognitive leaps we are striving for in the conception of a disruptive innovation
is to analyze the value propositions of precedents from parallel sectors where they have
Role
solved a similar analogous, problem in a radically new way, or solved a very different
problems whose underlying roots causes are similar, so their disruptive innovations will
have elements within them that we can use. These so-called ‘isomorphic’ precedents allow
us to spot underlying breakthrough in the architecture of a system - e.g. mobile phone tariff
innovation brought to bear on co-working spaces. To find solutions beyond those available
to the public, it is also extremely valuable to find lead-users (those who have developed
their own solutions because none have been commercially available) and so-called
‘positive deviants’ (those who have a low incidence of the problem in populations of
traditional high incidence rates) to understand what elements of a solution they have
discovered or developed that has enabled them to not experience the problems we want to

Like the Causal Layered Analysis, the Value Proposition Analysis often leaves a solution to
the problem to chance. Some teams will analyze the propositions and manage to
recombine or reinvent them in a way that generates a disruptive social innovation.
However many will not be able to do this from analysis alone. We have noticed that there
are three domains in which new propositions tend to disrupt the status quo. A current
solution may be available to the (relatively) rich and the powerful, in which case it is our task
to crack how to make it more accessible and affordable - ie. available - at scale (this is
where a large part of the focus on ‘Bottom of Pyramid’ innovation focuses (cf. Prahalad). Or
they exist in a technical or geeky format, and our task is to work out how to make them
Improvements
more usable. Or they may exist but be resisted by our target group, so our task is to make
them in some way more enjoyable. Many disruptive innovations have taken an existing
solution, removed or radically reduced one element of the proposition that people have
assumed is vital (which is often where most of the cost is located) and in its place increased
accessibility, usability or enjoyability (and often all three). Thus many more people can enjoy
the benefits of existing solutions and the space has been positively disrupted forever. Within
this process the team will regularly be forced to turn away from existing knowledge and
power structures (such as the expert-user model) and entertain the potential for peer-to-
peer and self-organized delivery models which can radically reduce costs whilst increasing
provision (e..g AA, TEDx, NHS Direct). This is often uncomfortable for many, particularly those
vested in the perceived ‘cost’ of their own career path, and their investment in professional
qualifications.

Design

Design thinking is a set of approaches that is focused on ensuring that solutions are fit for
purpose and fit for context. The aim is to design a suite of joined up, sustainable and
systemic concepts that can be rapid prototyped in the field, iterated, mainstreamed and
scaled. Design as an approach allows for the creative iteration of solutions that solve
problems in context with a deep understanding of users and their needs. At its best, it
Process Stage includes multi-disciplinary teams that co-create solutions synthetically, exploring impact
through prototyping what works and iterating until the right mix of concepts and activities
have been found to solve the original problem. Often much attention is given to defining the
problem itself, particularly in complex situations. By defining the problem accurately and
appropriately, half the work is done because solutions immediately begin to fall out of a
well defined problem which includes within it deep insight into the end-user.

Human-Centered Design & Ethnographic Research.
Tools

Ideally the design stage includes the techniques associated with user-centered or human-
centered design where anthropological and deep behavioral insights about how people
think and feel in situ are fed into the innovation process to ensure the end-results are driven
by the user, so are actually used and valued by them when implemented. By bringing real
Role
people both into our minds and into the project team, we can mitigate the dangers of
abstraction, which all quantified analysis undertakes, and which (cf, Sartre), create so much
damage. In human-centered design we can also leverage an understanding of
‘affordances’ so that we can piggy-back on existing cultural codes and human behaviors
with our new ideas, thus increasing the speed of uptake.

Although there are many brilliant users of design thinking in service and program
development, the process can still gear solutions towards ‘things’ rather than campaigns or
programs due its origins in ‘product’ design whether that is a house or a remote control.
Design Thinking also tends towards incremental innovations that fit the current context, as
Improvements opposed to systemic solutions that reinvent the future in new and hitherto unseen ways.
When used in conjunction with systems thinking we can begin to design a preferred state of
the system, and look at the conditions we would need to have in place for that preferred
state to come into being. These conditions can then be designed for. We also are keen

proponents that some design thinkers encourage, which is the rigor of ensuring that for any
design we can test out (and then iterate), not just a prototype (a low risk, low cost way to
prototype it in 2-4 weeks), but also the specification of a Minimal Viable Product. The MVP
he absolutely smallest, least costly offer that can be launched into the environment or
market which generates the fundamental value exchange mechanisms within the core
business model.

Refine

Even with a well-designed product, service or offer, there is no guarantee that it is feasible
and can be delivered sustainably (financial, social and environmental) over time. This is
Process Stage where we must refine different value propositions with their underlying operating, business
and delivery models within the reality of our collective core competencies and restrictions.
By having all these complex interactions simplified onto one canvas we can ensure that we
take into consideration all the elements that must interact for successful outcomes.

Tools Visual Business Model Innovation & The Impact Model Canvas

The ‘business model canvas’ (Cf. Osterwalder et. al.) allows individuals and teams to rapidly
experiment with and design different business models for their projects, to spot
Role
inconsistencies and weaknesses, and to move towards real-world implementation with an
understanding of feasibility, costs and barriers

The standard business model ‘canvas’ is not geared towards the peculiar needs of
disruptive innovation nor the complexity of delivery, impact and organisation models
necessary for social innovation at scale. More importantly, it does not easily encompass

Improvements some of the other forms of return and cost associated with a quadruple bottom line -
people, planet and play (as well as profit). By iterating the canvas considerably we can
allow for teams to work together in real-time to trade-off and balance costs, impacts,
revenues, organisational structures, brand and fundraising strategies and more.

Engage

As all ambitious social innovations necessitate that we engage people to change
established behaviours (and that includes funding them) engagement is key (and often
Process Stage forgotten). Both in democracies and collaborative projects we cannot tell people to do
things. We have to enroll them to do things. We have to engage them to change, fund or
support us. Here the skills of influencing, storytelling and persuasion are vital.

Storytelling & Influencing
Tools

One of the most powerful ways to engage people - whether the ‘crowd’ in innovation,
partners in implementation, or end-beneficiaries in actual usage - is through story. A well
engineered story, told with authenticity and panache, can capture the hearts and minds of
all, tapping into creativity and energy more than any other form of communication. In fact,
neuroscience research has shown that without emotional engagement human beings
Role cannot even make supposedly ‘logical’ decisions very well. In addition, most radical
innovations rely on the creation of new behaviors in place of the old (e.g. women playing
video games with their boyfriends). Behavior change usually demands that a new cultural
‘story’ had become mainstream. This ability to break old patterns and create new ones
relies on the engagement of the user in an emerging narrative of what is possible,
beneficial and credible. This helps the innovator ‘get over the chasm’ that exists between
early adopters and the early mainstream (cf. Moore). Marketing and the brand strategy that
lies at the heart of it is a form of storytelling what enables perception change that leads to
behavior - and eventually therefore social - change. Finally, an increasingly useful form of
research into user needs, behaviors and attitudes is narrative-based. Users are invited to
share stories, and within this data, themes and commonalities (as well as differences) can
be pulled together and shared needs - rational, emotional and symbolic - as well as key
implementation success factors, can be drawn out from these ‘stories’.

Persuasion psychology is often employed for unethical goals - selling people products,
brands and ideas that are not geared towards individual and collective flourishing. We
believe that persuasion works optimally when aligned profoundly and openly to intentions.
This honors others by allowing them to choose whether to be engaged or not at the level of
values. And it ensures that the right people collaborate with all their potential on projects

Improvements with a common purpose. The quality of innovation stories can often rely on the talents of the

with a common purpose. The quality of innovation stories can often rely on the talents of the
teller. Even with the most gifted storyteller, sharing simply and effectively the power and
impact of a breakthrough and disruptive innovation is a tough challenge precisely because
the listener has to enact a cognitive leap to ‘get’ the idea. If the ideas was easily graspable,
as stated above, it would have been done already. We have researched the most
successful Hollywood scriptwriting techniques and forms, combined it with the art and
science of creative brief writing from the marketing world (where a team of strategists can
take 6 months to write a 1 page brief explaining the new strategy so the best creative work
can come from it) to put together an innovation story engine that enables everyone to
create, craft and tell a powerful story. The engine is so powerful that it can acts as both the
innovation process, and the story, at the same time.

From Process to Pitch: Telling Breakthrough Innovation & Impact Stories

Whether you want to motivate your executives, organize your shareholders, shape your
media, engage your customers, win over investors, or land a job, you have to deliver a clarion
call that will get your listeners' attention, emotionalize your goal as theirs, and move them to
act in your favor. You have to reach their hearts as well as their minds-and this is just what
story telling does!
Peter Guber

If you’re going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.

Joseph Campbell

So our team set out on the quest to find the transformative, the disruptive and the radical with

an open mind and an open heart - as well as what C. Otto Scharmer calls an open will. We
engaged in a process designed to support us and keep us at peak performance as we explored the

ambiguities, uncertainties and dangers of the known unknown and the unknown unknown. Now
we are back from the heros’ and heroines’ journey together having discovered something

genuinely new and transformative - and we are keen to switch on others to what is possible. It is

vital that we do - whether in pitch, strategic document, social media campaign, fundraising
document, business plan or above the line advertising campaign - because otherwise our idea

can never move towards the vital moment went it changes people’s real beliefs and behaviors.

It appears, from much current social science and change research, as well as contemporary

thinking in leadership and media studies, that only way we succeed in converting others to our
cause is to tell them a cracking ‘story’, no matter how logical we or they think they are. Below is

our ‘Story Engine’ which engages people in a story that is both inspiring and totally
comprehendible, without lessing the newness of the breakthrough. For teams using it, it takes

them on an elegant journey providing a powerful framework for a world-changing ‘innovation

story’ that can communicate ideas to funders, investors, donors and other vital stakeholders in a

way that creates and realizes a call to action. Thus the ambiguities and necessary messiness of
our journey on the knife-edge between glorious success and ignoble failure can be transformed

into a well-structured narrative that creates logic where there was confusion; and brings the
chaos into some form of order, at least for the purposes of clarity and communication. For it is

when we compassionately and responsibly apply the power of humankind’s creative will to the

abundant messiness of nature that our unique brilliance as a species shines forth through our
innovations.

From Talk to Trouser: Emergent Execution

Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
Chinese Proverb

Although all the tools, ideas and processes in this paper can be of fundamental value in

developing radical innovations with a positive social and environmental impact, all the proof is

always in the pudding. That is to say that many of us have wonderful ideas and strategic
intentions, but until we actually execute them, their impact remains latent. Execution is always

key, for one organization or team can implement an idea brilliantly, to great success; whilst
another team can execute that same idea and it can fail.

From this observation we can see that a) pointing out previous failures suffered by competitors

as a reason for not progressing an innovation has very little validity, unless learnings from the
project or case-study are digested and strategies adjusted accordingly. If Apple had looked at its

own history and convinced itself that PDAs ‘don’t work’ because they had failed to realize the
market opportunity of the Apple Newton, it is likely that the iPod, iPhone and iPad would never

have been invented, and Apple would not have become (albeit it briefly), the most valuable

company in the planet. It also reinforces the principle that b) organizational culture and
collective team character are all important when it comes to innovation as they are what

determines the quality of execution.

As we have seen from the Cynefin model, many of the contexts into which our innovations and

programs will be launched are not simple (or even just complicated). They are complex and
chaotic. For many years management theory has assumed that implementation strategy is

linear, and this influenced much practice. Decide on goals and outcomes, develop the strategy,

and then execute it to the letter. This technique, advocated in management consultancies (and
invented so successfully in pitched battles between static armies), has more relevance in

environments that are stable, or when developing incremental innovations that need no new
behaviors or thought patterns in the marketplace or social space. However, changing how real

people think and act in transforming environments with multiple feedback mechanisms (as

almost all societies are nowadays) is a complex process and none of us have the kind of
omniscience that would ensure that a single chosen execution strategy would be successful.

People and the social structures they live within are alive. They shift, change and meld as time
goes on. They react to new ideas and activities in unusual and unpredictable ways. As

complexity theory (and the Cynefin model) tell us, small changes in the initial conditions of the

project can create enormous changes later on down the line even if all processes are standard.
And as transformative projects are by necessity complex, we must be attuned to small changes

in the space that require us to change our strategy and adjust our activities to fit.

For many people schooled in traditional management processes and the assumption of linearity

so entrenched in the modern world view, this kind of ‘emergent execution’ can be bewildering,
exhausting and stressful - as absolute control must necessarily be relaxed at points in the

process. Some people are so used to clear goals with clear pathways to achieve them that the
kind of responsive, reflective and often intuitive decision-making that is demanded on the

journey of radical innovation often challenges people to their core. This is one reason why we

see so little radical social innovation - it takes courage and conviction as well as humility and
patience. By setting expectations extremely early within the team - and by sharing the, nay

required - this can be mitigated. But above all, encouraging individual mindfulness, peer
coaching on blind spots and group think, and responsive co-creation we can build, ongoingly, a

culture of tolerance of ambiguity. By encouraging execution to be emergent - i.e.. it emerges over

time as ideas are prototyped and tested - we can build the capacity for team members to engage
in breakthrough innovation processes (and guide others through them) in future. This is the way

to build a true innovation culture for ever-increasing creative power as the future unfolds.

Mindset & Culture

Employers told us that someone with a winning mindset was, on average, seven times more
valuable than a normal employee.
James Reed, Reed Employment

Recent academic research across hundreds of companies and many many countries has now

concluded that no matter how fine the tools, how sophisticated the process, how brilliant the

minds - if the team does not have a culture and therefore a set of embedded mindsets that
nurture disruptive innovation, it is very unlikely to occur. Mindset conquers all, as leading

employment experts are now realizing (cf. 3G Mindsets by James Reed Chairman of Reed
Employment). It is because mindsets, and the culture that cultivates and nurtures them, are

what separates teams that can deal with risk, ambiguity and the need for constant action-

learning and emergent execution; from those that want all the answers quickly, cannot tolerate
the unknowns (nor the people that illuminate them through challenging questions) and execute

in a linear way without the agility and flexibility needed to constantly course-correct as the path
becomes clearer.

The importance of this cannot be over-stated. Just as a butterfly’s wings in Nova Scotia can
create a Tsunami in New Guinea, so the initial conditions of any innovation project - of which

culture and mindset are so crucial - can determine the eventual success of failure of it irrelevant
of how much money is thrown at it. We need only look at the Iraq War to see how the initial

culture and mindset of the team foreshadowed the end results with the largest budget for radical

social innovation in history. You can read more on this topic in a companion paper, Designing
for Co-Creation.

Learning Through Doing, Doing Through Learning

Innovation must involve failure, and the appetite for failure is bound to be limited in very
accountable organizations or where peoples’ lives depend on reliability.
Geoff Mulgan

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Thomas A. Edison

Breakthrough innovation is synonymous with learning.

Firstly we must learn how to do breakthrough social innovation - conceive of, iterate and
implement a breakthrough - by learning what does and what does not work in real-time. As we

have noted (and the Cynefin model makes clear) there are no clear precedents or categorical

best-practices for co-creating a radical reinvention of the space or market you are intent on
transforming. We must learn as we go - harnessing our mistakes and errors live and direct; and

continuously course correcting until our impact bears some resemblance to our original
intentions. We can loosely call this Action Research.

Secondly, as we engage in this kind of endeavor it pays us to learn intently as we go - not just
about how social change happens; about what users and beneficiaries think and feel like in the

cultures we are working in; and how to organize a team so that its collective creativity is group
and group flow achieved - but about who we are; what we are really capable of; and how and

when our inner landscape and personal dynamics generate the best conditions for breakthrough

innovation (or not). We can loosely call this Action Learning.

The two flow together, of course. We act in the world and we learn what works from the people
we intervened for. As we do we develop what we call Innovation Intuition - the capacity to intuit

what is likely to be a successful intervention and what is not. As we reflect on our own enabling
and limiting role in our real-world interventions, we start to glimpse where we can let go of

beliefs and patterns that are inhibiting our change-maker potential; and where we can build on
emerging talents - many of which may have been hidden for decades - as we strive to become a

more and more effective, compassionate and powerful innovator for the collective good.

Developing a Community of Practice, Innovation Circles and Leadership Circles are all valuable

in this dynamic learning through doing, doing through learning process.

Innovation Templates Affording Collective Creativity & Team
Empowerment

If you want me to speak for an hour – give me a moment’s notice; if you want me to speak for
half an hour, give me a day’s notice; if you want me to speak for five minutes – give me a
week.
Winston Churchill

We prioritize the use of Innovation Templates. These are painstakingly designed, tested and

iterated ‘pro-formas’ that codify expert innovation knowledge and intuitive innovation
experience into deceptively simple templates. These templates take us years to develop for we

have to crystallize the essence of strategic innovation into a series of questions; and we
customize them to fit every specific process and organizational culture.

Such templates ‘democratize’ the most rarified expertise. They allow the core team - not just the
consultants - to engage as equals in all parts of the process, and build the capacity for the team

to harness the templates and years of experience in future.

They are vital resources for truly collaborative and open innovation processes as they allow

beneficiaries, experts, invited stakeholders and more to work together on ideas in real-time -
and then share them with the team for iteration and augmentation by the collective creative and

analytical potential of the team.

Inspirations, Further Reading & References

Duncan Green. From Poverty to Power.

Geoffrey Moore. Crossing the Chasm.

Henry Chesborough. Open Innovation & Open Services Innovation.

W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. Blue Ocean Strategy.

Alex Osterwalder et. al., Business Model Generation. Clayton M. Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson

and Michael B. Horn . Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the
World Learns.

Christensen, C.M. (1997) The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms
to Fail, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts.

Hasso Plattner, Christoph Meinel & Ulrich Weinberg. Design Thinking.

Learning Organizations: Kessels & Smit

Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love.

James Reed & Paul Stoltz.
Henderson, R. and Clark, K. (1990) ‘Architectural innovation: the reconfiguration of existing

product technologies and the failure of established firms’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol.

35, pp.9–30.
Lettice, F. & Parekh, M. 2010. The social innovation process: themes, challenges and

implications for practice. International Journal of Technology Management, 51, 139-158.
Christensen, C.M. and Overdorf, M. (2000) ‘Meeting the challenge of disruptive change’,

Harvard Business Review, Vol. 78, Issue 2, pp.67–76.

Christensen, C.M, Baumann, H., Ruggles, R. and Sadtler, T.M. (2006) ‘Disruptive innovation for
social change’, Harvard Business Review (HBR Spotlight), December, pp.2–8.

Moore, G. (2002) Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to
Mainstream Business Customers, HarperCollins Publishers.

Mulgan, G., Ali, R., Halkett, R. and Sanders, B. (2007a) In and Out of Sync: the Challenge of
Growing Social Innovations, NESTA Research Report, September.

Prahalad, C.K. (2005) The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Wharton School Publishing,
Upper Saddle, NJ.

Mulgan, G., Tucker, S., Ali, R. and Sanders, B. (2007b) ‘Social innovation: what it is, why it

matters and how it can be accelerated’, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Said Business
School, Oxford University, The Young Foundation

Steven Johnson, The Orgins of Good Ideas. WSJ.

Melanie Mitchell. Complexity: A Guided Tour.

Stuart Kauffman. At Home in the Universe. The Orgins of Order. Reinventing the Sacred.

Peter Senge. The 5th Discipline.

Gibson, J. J. (1977). The theory of affordances. In R. E. Shaw & J. Bransford (Eds.), Perceiving,

Acting, and Knowing. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Gibson, J. J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Norman, D. A. (1988). The psychology of everyday things. New York: Basic Books.

Norman, D. A. (1990). The design of everyday things. New York: Doubleday.
Lane, D.; Pumain, D.; Leeuw, S.E. van der; West, G. (Eds.) Complexity Perspectives in

innovation and social change (2009)
A. Damasio, Descartes’ Error

William Easterly, The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done

So Much Ill and So Little Good (New York: Penguin Press, 2006)
Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)

Peter Guber, Tell to Win

Brooks, Story Engineering.

Joseph Cambell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces etc.

Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey
Dominic Chalmers. Why Social Innovators Should Embrace the ‘Open’ Paradigm

Pascale & Sternin, The Power of Positive Deviance
Sohail Inayatullah, ed., The Causal Layered Analysis Reader: theory and case studies of an

integrative and transformative methodology. Tamsui, Tamkang University, 2004.

David Bohm, On Dialogue

Glen L. Urban; Eric von Hippel. Lead User Analyses for the Development of New Industrial

Products
Moore, M. & Westley, F. 2011. Surmountable Chasms: Networks and Social Innovation for

Resilient Systems. Jim Woodhill, Capacities for Institutional Innovation: A Complexity
Perspective Ecology and Society, 16(1).

C. F. Kurtz and D. J. Snowden. The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and

complicated world etc.

Nick Jankel, Designing for Co-Creation

Nick Jankel et al. Radical Reinvention: Cultivating Breakthrough Social Innovation

Jankel-Elliott, Elliott, Using ethnography in strategic consumer research, Qualitative Market

Research: An International Journal

Tellis, G.J., Prabhu, J.C. and Chandy, R.K. (2009) "Radical innovation across nations: the
preeminence of corporate culture." Journal of Marketing, 73(1): 3-23

Harvard Business Review on Innovation
C. Otto Scharmer, 2010. The Blind Spot of Institutional Leadership: How To Create Deep

Innovation Through Moving from Egosystem to Ecosystem Awareness. Seven Acupuncture

Points for Shifting Capitalism to Create a Regenerative Ecosystem Economy.

How to Deliver Breakthrough, Disruptive Social Innovations

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (18)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (7)

Similar to How to Deliver Breakthrough, Disruptive Social Innovations

Similar to How to Deliver Breakthrough, Disruptive Social Innovations (20)

More from Switch On | Thrive Your Future

More from Switch On | Thrive Your Future (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (10)

How to Deliver Breakthrough, Disruptive Social Innovations