06/03/2020

Innovating for a Higher Purpose

Delving into new potentials for innovation as a driving force in the social sector

“Innovation” is becoming one of the most overused and meaningless buzzwords of the decade. It is the thing that every leader demands, yet many don’t understand why they need it, or even what it is. Leaders are often very enthusiastic about encouraging everyone to be innovative, yet vague about what it means in practical terms. Companies are often enamored with the latest “disruption” of the month, yet innovation is not only about disruptive technology. Sometimes it's not about disruption at all. At its core it is about business outcomes and people; it is about new ways of doing business, talent, and change management; it is about transforming to new operating models based on co-development and ecosystems of partnerships; it is a journey.

We are facing unprecedented challenges in the world today, and challenges always lead to innovation. The “lonely innovator” is a myth and to solve our problems and provide value we need to collaborate and embrace a diversity of opinions. Fearless Innovation shares ways for organizations to create viable ecosystems and partner with all their stakeholders for common good—employees, shareholders, customers, and local communities. As the world becomes more connected, embracing the ecosystem is essential to success. After all, once innovation is woven into the fabric of an organization’s culture and its ecosystem, it becomes so intuitive, so ever-present and unidentifiable, that it needs no name at all. — Alex Goryachev

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The innovation-change cycle can be illustrated by the work of Abraham Maslow. If you’re not familiar with Maslow, he was a twentieth-century American psychologist, best known for developing the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, typically depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels that address our material and immaterial human needs.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Stanford Social Innovation Review.