the term systems innovation has become
popular in the past decades but the term
is often left is somewhat vague so let's
start by presenting a working definition
systems innovation can be understood as
a combination of systems thinking and
the process of innovation so as to
enable transformative change within a
complex system so there are three
primary aspects here Systems thinking
innovation and complex systems systems
thinking is a way of looking at the
world it is what we call a holistic
paradigm meaning that it enables us to
look at analyze and talk about whole
systems rather than simply looking at
their parts according to the Oxford
Dictionary innovation is to make changes
in something established especially by
introducing new methods ideas or
products a complex system is typically a
large-scale system composed of many
interdependent parts that are relatively
autonomous all of the large-scale
systems we are interested in our economy
are complex adaptive systems food
systems energy systems political systems
health systems financial systems etc so
systems innovation is about using
systems thinking to enable
transformative change within these
complex organizations in this section we
will elaborate on each aspect of this so
as to get a high-level overview for what
we mean by this term systems innovation
firstly what is innovation innovation is
about the creation of something that is
both new and a value however it is also
about its adoption and implementation so
as to change some established way of
doing things the key aspects of
innovation are that of creativity and
change however innovation is different
from pure creativity in that it is
looking at both ends of the equation
both the creation of something new and
useful but also its adoption and usage
within society so as to enable real
change in the world around us according
to Steven Shapiro innovation is simply
staying relevant this is an important
aspect of innovation where as pure
creativity is often about things that
exist in the abstract there are somewhat
timeless and come from within so to
speak like a painting or a piece of
classical music
however innovation is about responding
to the environment it is seen how the
world is changing and building something
that will be relevant for that world of
tomorrow it is really what enables us to
adapt to the changing environment it is
the introduction of a new solution that
adds value because it fits with the
overall context within which it is
introduced that is why adoption is
important if it is not adopted
that is because it does not fit with the
current context and deliver value thus
it may be creative but it is not really
innovation because it has not actually
changed anything
typically when we talk about innovation
we think of things some kind of a
technology like a mobile phone an
electric bike an app or some other new
product we have got really good at
creating designing and redesigning
things after many centuries of
perfecting our industrial model we have
created a lot of things indeed we might
say we have created too many things this
type of innovation is focused on parts
building a better car which is just one
part in the transport system making a
better solar panel which is just one
part in an energy system creating a
better medical device which is one part
in the health system where as much of
our traditional thinking is focused on
parts and closed forms of incremental
innovation many of the challenges we
face today require a different form of
change a different form of innovation a
form of innovation that changes systems
not just parts the world is changing in
profound ways as we move from the
Industrial Age into an age of
information globalization and
sustainability as our Industrial Age
systems of organization come to the end
of their lifecycle we find ourselves
increasingly challenged with building
whole new network systems the real
design challenges are shifting from
building things to building systems not
another house but designing a whole
smart city not another power plant but a
whole smart grid not another car but an
integrated transport service as the
social innovator in do har puts it
whilst it's cute and nice and relevant
to be talking about the lovely nice
things underneath those nice things are
a bunch of institutions and
institutional behaviors that structure
how we make our world and to innovate
we're going to have to innovate those
what is missing today our organizations
and systems that work we have no
shortage of thousands of different drugs
but we don't seem to be able to build
health systems that really work the way
they should
we're very good at building cars with
the latest technology and fuel
efficiency but we don't seem to be able
to build a transport system that works
for all including the environment as
billions of more people join the global
economy from emerging markets we find
ourselves in a world of more and more
people who want more and more things and
that equation is no longer adding up
what we really need is to organize those
things better we need to build systems
and this takes systems level innovation
which is something we are not used to we
all have an idea for what innovation is
but what is innovation when you are
dealing with a complex system what does
innovation look like when applied to
redesigning how a whole political system
works or the public administration for
millions of people and thousands of
departments and sub departments this is
not just a change in scale it is also a
change in quality it requires a
different kind of thinking and
innovation it is not something we are
accustomed to however it is a form of
innovation that we have to learn to do
if we as enterprises as governments as
open societies are going to survive in a
complex integrated global economy
systems-thinking looks at the world in
terms of connections patterns of
organization and how the system behavior
emerges out of those patterns systems
innovation is different because it is
innovation not in things but in
connections and organization it is aimed
at changing the basic structure of an
organization we are not trying to change
the parts everything that we do in
systems innovation will be about
changing connections so as to realize a
different form of emergent behavior and
functionality within the system this is
about whole systems we are very used to
thinking of innovation as only applying
to things a self-driving car an app a
new drone etc but imagine building new
economies we can actually do that today
imagine building an economy based upon a
full cost accounting system one that
does not just account for a financial
capital but one that accounts for social
capital and natural capital as well that
would incentivize radically different
behavior this is innovation in the
institutional systems that structure
human activity and we can now do this
thanks to technological developments
this kind of innovation doesn't grow
your economy by an extra one or two
percent it actually rewrites the rules
of what an economy is these are the kind
of quantum leaps that are needed today
if we want to keep pace and remain
relevant given the massive upheavals
taking place in our world today we are
in a period of transition comparable
only to that of the agrarian revolution
or the move into the modern era staying
relevant within such a transformation
will require innovation on a scale and
depth to match that as Jack Welch the
former CEO of General electricity put it
succinctly if the rate of change outside
exceeds the rate of change inside the
end is in sight whereas managed
is generally about doing what we did in
the past the point of innovation is
change to not do what you are doing
again in a paper entitled systems change
what it is and how to do it the authors
write systems change is an intentional
process designed to alter the status quo
by shifting the function or structure of
the identified system with purposeful
interventions it is a journey which can
require a radical change in people's
attitudes as well as in the ways that
people work systems innovators aim to
transform the system in which they
operate so as to no longer have a job as
there is no longer a problem to fix
as Ashoka's founder Bill Drayton once
said social entrepreneurs are not
content to give a fish or teach how to
fish they will not rest until they have
revolutionized the fishing industry this
helps to illustrate the expansive nature
of systems innovation systems thinking
itself is holistic holistic approaches
always refer to the whole this makes
systems thinking expansive in nature
we're always reasoning upwards and thus
expanding our frame of reference
likewise doing systems innovation is the
same we're always looking upwards to the
whole system we are a part of we are
always looking to see how our sphere of
interest fits into the broader systems
for example rather than support a person
who is building a school we search for
people who are transforming the way
children learn at a regional national or
even international level the ultimate
frame of reference for all of this is
the whole complex global economy that we
now find ourselves a part of this is
relevant because as the world becomes
more interconnected and thus
interdependent and narrow focus on
innovation improvements within a
specific area can easily get overridden
by broader processes of change
at first glance it may appear like we
are able to do all sorts of things with
our large organizations and all this
capital we have now accumulated but the
reality is that the connectivity and
complexity have happened so fast in our
institutional paradigm is so not
designed for it that we are actually
able to do quite little except for
perpetuating what we did in the past the
analogy of a rabbit being caught in the
headlights is not too far removed from
where we find ourselves today we quite
simply do not have the institutional
structures to operate in this kind of
complex networked global environment
with the kind of challenges it creates
what we do have is hugely inefficient
and thus ineffective given the new
context it is sobering to remember that
we have not yet solved even one of the
existing global issues from climate
change to cybersecurity to a refugee
crisis to financial instability to soil
erosion and none of them are getting any
better
but today we have a powerful new set of
technologies with which to build new
organizational structures in the past
decades we have put powerful tools for
computation in the hands of many and
interconnected us all with
telecommunications networks this offers
the potential to innovate in virtually
all spheres of human activity to rethink
virtually all of these systems as we
turn the centralized
organizations of today into the open
networks of tomorrow but doing that
successfully requires new ways of
thinking and systems innovation the
workings of which we will be exploring
during this course