Creativity & Innovation
Horizontal Loyalty
Imagine this time of sustainability transition as a wave, where all along the leading edge are people and organizations inventing new ways of using clean energy, renewing democracy, creating businesses that solve social problems, and 
thousands of other innovations to create a better future. Each person or initiative, in their own way, has to go up against the forces of the status quo that resist change, the Coalition of No, as blogger Seth Godin names it.
When we can organize the leaders of change into networks they can have an amplifying and strengthening effect. Allying with others to bring in the new is what is needed. In a commencement speech in 2011 at Berkeley Journalism School Robert Krulwich, a science journalist who hosts the radio program Radiolab, encouraged the graduates to trust their own ideas and ally with like-minded friends bringing in the new “music.” His advice applies to innovators everywhere:
The people in charge, of course, don’t want to change. They like the music they’ve got. To the newcomers, they say, “Wait your turn”. But in a world like this… rampant with new technologies, and new ways to do things, the newcomers… that means you… you here today, you have to trust your music…
So for this age, for your time, I want you to just think about this: Think about NOT waiting your turn.
Instead, think about getting together with friends that you admire, or envy. Think about entrepreneuring. Think about NOT waiting for a company to call you up. Think about not giving your heart to a bunch of adults you don’t know. Think about horizontal loyalty. Think about turning to people you already know, who are your friends, or friends of their friends and making something that makes sense to you together, that is as beautiful or as true as you can make it.
He also speaks to how our networks of relationships are what really provide security:
And when it comes to security, to protection, your friends may take better care of you than CBS took care of Charles Kuralt in the end. In every career, your job is to make and tell stories, of course. You will build a body of work, but you will also build a body of affection, with the people you’ve helped who’ve helped you back.
And maybe that’s your way into Troy. There you are, on the beach, with the other newbies, looking up. Maybe somebody inside will throw you a key and let you in… But more likely, most of you will have to find your own Trojan Horse.
And maybe, for your generation, the Trojan Horse is what you’ve got, your talent, backed by a legion of friends. Not friends in high places. This is the era of Friends in Low Places. The ones you meet now, who will notice you, challenge you, work with you, and watch your back. Maybe they will be your strength.
With intentional weaving on networks to advance sustainability goals, we can connect the newbies with good ideas to friends in high places, friends who can be mentors and collaborators, and together create better policies, technologies, and ways of working together for a positive future.
The Diversity Innovation Connection
At last week’s Green Innovators in Business Network Solutions Lab in Cambridge, MA, participants explored how to accelerate innovation to bring low-carbon solutions to market on a big scale. Accessing diverse perspectives is key to finding the innovative solutions to challenging problems, as illustrated by case studies of Innocentive and EMC.
Searching Wide for Innovative Solutions
Innocentive helps clients “crowd-source” innovation to access “smart people who do not work in your company.” They post a client’s problem on their on-line platform where over 250,000 people worldwide can submit proposed solutions. The “solvers” can get financial awards ranging from $2,000 to over $100,000 for a winning idea. In some cases, clients get solutions for problems in 60 days that they have been working on for 15 years.
Oppression vs. Innovation
The coverage of the oppressive conditions in the Middle East and Obama’s recent speeches about cultivating our innovation potential at home were a striking contrast. A New York Times article described Egyptian leader Mubarak’s rule saying:
“His brand of despotism produced an authoritarianism that suffocated his people, a bureaucracy that corrupted the most mundane transaction and a malaise that saw Egypt turn inward.
“I’ve always said that my age is 60, but I haven’t lived for 30 years,” said Leila Abu Nasr, walking with her husband, Sharif. “We could have done so much more.”
One of the greatest tragedies of this oppression (and racism, inequality, etc.) is the loss of all that human ingenuity, resourcefulness, and contribution. Imagine all the good ideas, smart people, inventions, and collective potential that were not realized.
Inspiration on Earth Day
On Earth Day, we offer some quotes and strategic questions to inspire your thinking:
We live in an era where truth is most often found by looking away from the spectacle presented to us. - Rebecca Solnit
What are the positive stories of change that are rarely covered in the media? Millions of people across the world are working to bring about a healthier, more just, and peaceful future – each in their own way shifting the course of events. It takes intention and focus to listen for and find these bright spots of innovations that are working…to turn off the noise of all the attention to what is not working. How can we surface, share, and amplify what is working?
Where Good Ideas and Solutions Come From
Many aspects of addressing the sustainability challenge are what Ronald Heifetz, who teaches leadership at Harvard, calls “adaptive problems” as contrasted to technical problems:
“There are problems that are just technical. I'm delighted when a car mechanic fixes my car, an orthopedic surgeon gives me back a healed bone, or an internist gives me penicillin and cures my pneumonia. That's a key question: is this a problem that an expert can fix, or is this a problem that is going to require people in the community to change their values, their behavior, or their attitudes?”
For example, getting residents to adopt energy efficiency improvements in their homes is a challenge where the solutions are complex and vary by the context. In these situations, the leaders advocating for change and the communities themselves need to discover and share what works in their context. “Experts” can inform and guide but what is really needed is ways to convene and connect people that surface and synthesize the wisdom of their experiences on the ground.
