Transcript Innovation networks EMB, Hong Kong, 14 September 2005 Professor David Hargreaves

Innovation networks
EMB, Hong Kong, 14 September 2005
Professor David Hargreaves
The challenge and the opportunity
Dynamic governments remain porous. Renewal rarely comes
from within. One of the optical illusions of government is that
those inside of it think of themselves as the drivers of change…
Yet most far-reaching ideas and changes come from outside…
Governments are more often vehicles than initiators. They play
a role in embedding these changes but typically they get
involved only at a late stage…
The smarter governments around the world realise that they
need to build innovation into their everyday working: through
experimental zones and pilots, competitive funds and rewards
for promising ideas. And new ideas need time to evolve preferably away from the spotlight… Most radical change has
to start outside government, usually from the bottom rather than
the top.
Geoff Mulgan, May 2005
The three tasks of innovation networks
1. Knowledge creation
2. Knowledge capture
3. Knowledge transfer
The future is already here:
it is just not distributed very well.
William Gibson
…but it’s a half truth
…so the need for innovation
What is innovation?
Doing things differently
in order to do them better
And what is the most effective way
of engaging in innovation?
Here are five ways
1. Invest in high leverage for teachers!
Impact on students
low
high
Teacher’s
energy
input
low
high
Controlled focus
Productivity
Disciplined innovation
for
enhanced performance
1000 flowers
Innovation
Activity 1
Are your current teaching practices
designed for high leverage?
Do you think it desirable to create
more high leverage practices? If so,
how should this be done?
2. Clarify your types of innovation!
front-line or transferred
incremental or radical
Incremental versus radical
Minor change
Close to
existing
practice
Far from
existing
practice
Major change
Incremental
change
Radical
change
Front-line
Radical
Incremental
Transferred
Drivers of innovation
Innovation from scratch
- blue skies
Innovation from known weakness
- problem solving
Innovation from good practice
- leading edge
…what’s driving you?
Activity 2
What are the drivers of innovation
in our situation?
What types of innovation do we most
need, and why?
3. Create an innovation network!
A network… is a group of
organisations working together
to solve problems or issues
that are too large for any one
organisation to handle on its own.
(Priscilla Wohlstetter, 2003)
What do networks do for you?
Collaborate
Share ideas, knowledge, experience
Raise standards
Innovate for the common good
What conditions are needed?
Five critical conditions
1. New and appealing core practices
2. Entrepreneurial mediating innovators
3. Network infrastructure
4. Networking culture
5. A supportive, enabling environment
Network structures - nodes, links, hubs
Centralised Decentralised Distributed
So networks take many forms
• centralised etc
• hard - soft
• tight - loose
• strong - weak
• open - closed
• near - far
The trajectory of network development
Clarity of outcome
High
High
Clarity
of
process
Low
Low
Benefits and costs of networks
 What is the added value for teachers?
 What is the added value for students?
 What are the transaction costs?
 What are the opportunity costs?
 Is there a danger of network overload?
Activity 3
What kinds of network do we have now?
Can they be developed into effective
innovation networks?
Are you confident that the benefits
will be greater than the costs?
4. Distribute the innovation
• The go-it alone approach
• The modular approach
spliced (minor transfers only)
segmented (X divided into X1+X2+X3…)
sequenced (X1X2X3…)
synergistic (X,Y,Z modify to create N)
Activity 4
Which kinds of distributed innovation are:
• most appropriate in our situation?
• most likely to be effective?
Sharing good practice
versus
knowledge transfer
I inform you about it
versus
You can do what I can do
so…
5. Transfer the knowledge
Knowledge transfer Culture transmission
N
It’s all about social learning
Industrial and
Business
Innovation
Families
Kinship
Friends
Knowledge transfer a basic model
channel/mode
Donor
Stickiness
PUSH
Recipient
Absorptive capacity
PULL
When is transfer most difficult?
Non -sticky
High
absorptive
capacity
Sticky
Low
absorptive
capacity
Incremental
Radical
Difficulty of transfer
RECIPROCITY
mutual growth for mutual benefits
= ‘joint practice development’
arises in strategic alliances
involves distributed innovation
demands distributed leadership
becomes an example of Riccardo’s
law of comparative advantage
Source
• wants to share the knowledge
• respects the recipient
• communicates well through right modes
• understands the demands of radical innovation
for the time and energy demands on both sides
• offers lessons learned
• is committed to reciprocation
Recipient
• is motivated to adopt and adapt the knowledge
• sees the source as credible and trustworthy
• sees the transfer as professional learning
• is committed to reciprocation
Which do you learn more from?
• a clear description of a successful innovation
• an account of the innovator’s ‘lessons learned’
From the point of the innovator, which
is easier and more attractive to write?
So why are lessons learned so vital
to knowledge transfer?
Activity 5
What do we need to do to improve
the quality and speed of knowledge
transfer in our school system?
D&R networks
adopt an open source philosophy
to create a peer-to-peer system of
innovation and knowledge transfer
that is
decentralised,
distributed and
disciplined
and this feeds into iNet and learns from it
IBM is gambling that it can win by giving away
crown jewels - precious intellectual property in
the form of software, parents and ideas. Spread
enough of those riches around, the theory goes,
and the entire industry will grow, opening up
new frontiers…By sharing its discoveries wisely,
[CEO Sam] Palmisano says, IBM will ‘make the
pie bigger’ and the entire industry will grow
faster… Collaborating with customers and even
rivals to invent new technologies is a big part of
this sharing plan, whose first fruits are already
apparent.
Fortune, September 2005
Activity 6
Is it possible for us to adopt an
‘open source’ philosophy to drive
innovation in our system?
If so, what do we need to do next?
If not, how should we drive innovation?
Free reading in open source style
Education Epidemic, Demos, 2003
www.demos.co.uk/educationepidemic
Working laterally, DfES/Demos, 2003
www.demos.co.uk/workinglaterally