Transformative Innovation: A Guide to Practice and Policy for System Transition

Innovation is a necessity in a changing world. But what kind of innovation? 'Sustaining innovation' props up and temporarily fixes structures and processes that are failing-but does little for the longer term. 'Disruptive innovation' shakes things up in a way that can be welcome in the commercial sector, but is seldom wanted elsewhere. Typically, disruptive initiatives offer only short term impact or are eventually 'mainstreamed' to help sustain existing systems. That is particularly true in the public, social, cultural, and civic sectors where no natural patterns of renewal are in place. Only 'transformative innovation' can deliver a fundamental shift towards new patterns of viability in tune with our aspirations for the future. This pocketbook offers a first stand-alone practical guide to how to realize transformative potential at scale. It offers six elements for policymakers, funders, and innovators. Knowing: how to expand our sense of what constitutes valid knowledge to become more comfortable with complexity; Imagining: how to conceive, develop, and design transformative initiatives to carry a group's longer term aspirations; Being: how to organize for action, manage the process, and sustain the people involved over time; Doing: how to introduce the new in the presence of the old, enroll others, and figure out what to do when you don't know what to do; Enabling: how to construct a policy framework for long term transition and provide smart financing to match; and Supporting: how to develop systems and structures to support a culture of renewal in our public, social, and civic systems. It concludes with an invitation to join a growing community of transformative innovators around the world - a network of hope in powerful times.