#KINDNOVATE, can you relate?
kindness & innovation
Innovation is tough because it demands you to change.
Change creates friction and is asking for conscious effort.
Innovation benefits from kindness much more than expected.
Kindness is a choice, a good one,
it eases change and allows innovation to florish.
#kindinnovation
This framework has the primary goal to place and link together two relevant topics for innovation:
People Knowledge: Narrow (Specialist) vs Broad (Generalist)
Learning Environment: Kind (known & linear) vs Wicked (unknown & complex)
A simple tool to check the knowledge type possesed by people and to understand if they are proactive in changing and adopting a totally different mindset depending on which environment they are working.
The check is also useful in preventing grey, bad and sometime dangerous behaviour paths.
Two are the bad paths which should be avoided or at least carefully monitored:
1. When specialists, who are great executors, operate in a wicked environment using the same mindset to address some new and unknown issues.
2. When generalists, who are great learners, operate in a kind environment without changing their mindset to execute a standard task.
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The framework has been inspired during the reading of "Range " by David Epstein (the quotes on the image are taken from the book; more references in the Kind Bookshelf section below).
In the book D. Epstein writes about the study on "Learning Environments" by Emeritus Prof. Robin M. Hogarth.
Innovation Leader with a background in Materials Engineering, Strategy and Innovation, Design, Research and Developmen.
Proficient in Foresight, Sustainability & LCA, Circular Economy, Design Thinking, Project Management.
I’m a facilitator who helps companies and teams to develop strategic research and scenarios in the right time and on budget, making connections “out of the ordinary” and thinking about the “never done before”.
A π shape design mindset allows me to use strategic thinking, creativity and research skills with a clear and good purpose for new business development and execution.
“Alessio is a full time curious, and a natural carrier of kindness”
These are the projects strictly related to Innovation by using Materials and Design skills and knowledge developed in more than 20 years of professional experience. Innovative idea generation and problem solving are the main goal.
These two are the most relevant activities to solve Innovation challenges; unfortunately they are time-consuming and often companies could not find the time to deliver on time such activities. The goal here is to give an external support on making research to imagine possible, plausible, probable and preferable futures.
Sustainability projects are complex and need deep change; that's why starting with a kind and broad "warmup" helps to develop a meaningful project. The goal here is to better understand what "sustainability" means by thinking systemically and deeply when managing each project.
Choose the best option that fits with your team: half an hour, one hour, two hours, half a day, one day, more days for discussion, debate or workshop about Kind Innovation.
The main goals is sharing to inspire and generate new ideas.
In a few words: a kind innovator working with your team, on demand. The goal is to nudge change in thinking, attitude, behaviours.
Innovation is made up of three main ingredients:
- People
- Process
- Place
To build and improve innovation capabilities inside of a company the best way to start is mapping what is already working or not working well inside the company. The starting point to apply the Kind Innovation Matrix.
QUIET
by SUSAN CAIN
"16. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Gandhi
15. Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.
...
13. The universal longing for heaven is not about immortality so much as the wish for a world in which everyone is always kind.
12. “Quiet leadership” is not an oxymoron.
...
3. Solitude is a catalyst for innovation.
2. Our culture rightly admires risk-takers, but we need our “heed-takers” more than ever.
1. There’s a word for “people who are in their heads too much”: thinkers."
WHAT TO DO WHEN IT'S YOUR TURN
by SETH GODIN
"Reassurance?
It's not here, and it wouldn't do you any good if it were.
Opportunity?
It's everywhere
You've been
given a turn.
Will you take it?
Ifyou're thirsty enough,
the world is ready for you,
more than ever before
Go."
NON VIOLENT COMUNICATION
by MARSHAL B. ROSENBERG
Dealing conflict with a positive attitude
"The four components of NVC
1. Observations
2. Feelings
3. Needs
4. Request"
CONGRATULATIONS, BY THE WAY
by GEORGE SAUNDERS
"Who, in your life, do you remember most fondly, with the most undeniable feelings of warmth?
Those who were kindest to you, I bet.
It's a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I'd say, as a goal in life, you could do worse than: Try to be kinder."
THERE IS NO PLANET B
by MIKE BERNERS-LEE
“A country’s GDP might well go up if the level of spontaneous #kindness were to go down.
You could increase GDP by creating a world in which no-one does anything for free and out of kindness.”
RANGE
by DAVID EPSTEIN
"our research shows that a domain-based solution is often inferior ... Big innovation most often happens when an outsider who may be far away from the surface of the problem reframes the problem in a way that unlocks the solutions."
INFINITE GAME
by SIMON SINEK
"Where a finite-minded player makes products they think they can sell to people, the infinite-minded player makes product that people want to buy. The former is primarily focused on how the sale of those products benefits the company; the latter is primarily focused on how the products benefit those who buy them."
THE LEADERSHIP LAB
by CHRIS LEWIS and PIPPA MALMGREN
"Size is too often taken as an indicator of success, when, in reality, it could be seen as an indicator of poor service, lack of control and zero imagination."
"The more specialized we are, the more atomized we become. We do not hear and we do not see beyond our narrow view. It's difficult to see the horizon when you're buried in data."
NUDGE
by RICHARD H. THALER and CASS R. SUNSTEIN
“Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. There the authorities have etched the image of a black housefly into each urinal. It seems that men usually do not pay much attention to where they aim, which can create a bit of a mess, but if they see a target, attention and therefore accuracy are much increased.”
THE LAWS OF SIMPLICITY
by JOHN MAEDA
"Technology has made our lives more full, yet at the same time we've become uncomfortably "full."
Law 7 - EMOTION
More emotion are better than less
Law 9 - FAILURE
Some things can never be made simple."
NOT KNOWING
by STEVEN D' SOUZA and DIANA RENNER
"What good about not knowing things?"
"I don't see any benefit on ignorance"
I" prefer know people than not know them"
"Not knowing means I am vulnerable, I can cheeted on if I am naive"
"Why would I want to look illiterate, a buffoon in front of others?"
"I'm lost enough as it is, why would I want to get more lost?"
"Paradoxically, Not Knowing often leads to learn a new knowledge. Just as in Nature and Biology, Not Knowing can lead to growth that is unseen, like the embryo in the womb or the seed deep in the earth."
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR IN ORGANIZATIONS
by SHEILA M KEEGAN
"This is not just an idealistic goal. It is a business necessity. Innovation, in particular, is a risky endeavour, especially for the individuals who are actively involved in it. To experiment, fail and persevere with no guarantee of success, individuals need to feel the confidence of trusting organisation to back them up.
As Sprenger put:"Creative work is fragile and uncertain: ideas have to be developed, proposed, tested and justified or abandoned. People engage in such a process only when they feel secure, in an atmosphere of trust, respect and goodwill. Trust makes it easier to cope with deviations from routines and rules, especially when innovations and experiments and in error or failure."