Innovation is really old and freshly new. It goes back to the basics; stored intelligence, resources, methods + mappings, imagining scenarios and collaborative discussion about possibilities and failure before setting off on learning adventures. design thinking, service design, systems mapping and other methodologies provide tools to focus a groups attention to solve the problem they encounter, at the complexity level that matches the needs and system. For instance, the circulardesignguide.org provides a great human-centered design toolbox to work for rebuilding business operations and shifting human activity to drastically reduce waste and regenerate culture that is good for business, society, and planetary sustainable.
Your innovation process begins from where you are. And spending time to clarify the fitness, assets, skills and roadmaps before setting off on that learning journey is the first iteration of the process. And like adventures of all kinds, the more you do them the more fun, confident and effective you and your team will become.
A learning team begins by modeling what they see, do, feel, reflect and influence. The innovation happens often both by innovating a product-service project and at the same time becoming aware of the learning processes they engage with. The beauty of Design Thinking is that it is human-centered, building engagement and many dialogues around a challenge worth considering with other people. Working intentionally with both innovation tools and dialogue is a process of continual validation of the people involved. It shares the mindset and the will to solve real problems at the human level. For example…
I was very fortunate to work with five committed women at the International Trade Center_ Dept. of Countries operations department last fall on a high impact challenge. They identified siloing in project management between the 12 departments as the core problem due to; email backlog, competition for influence and ownership, system-level lack of transparency and massive inefficiency as the roadblocks that were exhausting people and wasting time.
Each team member then took on the work of identifying and interviewing people in other departments that later could become testing and promotional allies to verify that the pain points, structural and relationship aspects observed were, in fact, the root causes. Together in the ideation phase of the Bootcamp, they created a clear service model and kiosk of how they could resolve the complex issues by leveraging technology and improving workflows with a new centralized depot and smart protocols. Their engagement and creativity allowed them to be effective in solving multiple problems by engaging collaboratively with people they would not have normally talked to and those dialogues became the core value in the project’s development.
One can start the shift to circular business models and products anywhere along the life cycle of the production, distribution, sales/loan, user realm and disposal- valorisation of resources cycle. It may depend very much on the people most affected in the change as well as logically where one can cut costs. But a more motivating process that demonstrates circularity and success is to bring teams together to create and launch a new service that replaces a exploitive or wasteful process and includes digital innovation to reduce processing costs. The innovation teams includes people throughout the company who are commited and want to be part of the solution. Shifting to Circular Business models and practices is therefore about continuous learning and dialogue with short innovation cycle and impact measurements built right into the process. There are over 100 Swiss companies moving to circular business models in many sectors with fresh products that show circularity builds market resilience and collaborative eco-systems.
Workshop Leader
Circular Design-Systems Thinking
Humanity Centered Design
Open Social Innovation
Eco-Product Design + Prototyping
