Some recent developments and articles of interest:
- Tim Kastelle shares his recent experience of learning from a big mistake. “Learning from mistakes is a key innovation skill. If you do it by design, we call it experimenting. If it’s just random, it’s a mistake. In either case, it’s the learning that provides the value and makes us better”
- Geoff Mulgan from Nesta recently wrote about the use of design in public and social innovation. “At their best design methods and design thinking catalyse people to see issues and possibilities in a fresh way. They spark creativity and help us to spot the possible connections between things, which so often become obscured by the silos of daily life which dominate government and businesses alike. But we’re at a fascinating moment when design needs to learn as well as teach if its full potential is to be realised. If it does, it could become one of the defining fields of the next few decades. It it doesn’t it risks being seen as a fad that failed.”
- In response Aviv Katz from the Innovation Unit provides some thoughts on design and design consultants
- What is involved in running an innovation lab? Nesta shares some insights derived from their experiences. “Too often funders of early stage (particularly social) innovations try to lock them down. It’s one of the differences between giving grants and making investments. The trick is in balancing the certainty you need for accountability and the flexibility to allow innovations to evolve and pivot towards (hopefully towards greater impact).”
- MindLab share a video of an interview with David Halpern of the UK’s ‘Nudge unit’ about nudging.
As always, please feel free to identify any other recent developments or articles of interest in the comments below.
