Innovation and the Walls of the City
The achiever brain naturally wants to safeguard its domain so that success can continue indefinitely. As a result, we’ve created a heavily guarded virtual wall around the city of business.
Inside those walls, companies often treat innovation as something to manage. A division is carved out, R&D is siloed, and the rest of the enterprise continues with business as usual. It creates a pocket that feels “outside the city,” yet it remains within the same rules and safeguards. The allure of freedom is there, and the flow is still controlled.
The whole point of being outside the city is to move free of those constraints — to explore, to imagine, to follow signals at the edge. When innovation is contained in a silo, or worse, when decision-making is handed over to algorithms (AI) that amplify disruption without coherence, the flow between outside and inside begins to break down.
Much of today’s talk about “cultures of innovation” gets the cart before the horse. Innovation isn’t something you can create by mandate. It’s emergent. Sometimes it comes from re-combining what already exists in novel ways. Other times it’s unprecedented, something that breaks entirely new ground. In both cases, awareness greatly enhances the possibility of innovation.
In a time of interdependent, entangled systems, linear approaches to innovation fall short. Our wicked problems are not solved by formula. They require presence to what is emerging behind the obvious.
Innovation, then, is less about building higher walls or tighter silos. It is about cultivating the awareness that allows what wants to happen to flow.If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy microcollection #3: Inside and Outside the Walls of the City
Published WorkMore Relevant Reading
Made-to-Measure Haute Couture at The HuPerson Project
There is a saying that when someone has worn a made-to-measure haute couture item, it’s like nothing they’ve ever worn before. A single garment reflects the individuality of the client in many ways. The client is viewed with a broad outlook by the designer, who then brings their craft to that view. Consider these descriptions […]
What is your leadership algorithm, at the highest level?
The operating system on your computer, your OS, is a complex weave of algorithms, or sets of instructions, that, when booted up, sets the stage for the user to complete a set of tasks. The specific algorithms are hidden from our view, because they run in the background, instructing our computer on how to carry […]
6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Alice’s Advice to Business
We are in an unprecedented world, which might suggest there are things that are possible that the past is not inclined to suggest. Adjacent to this is the ability to imagine making the “impossible” happen, in a manner outside of what is commonly believed to be possible. Let’s unpack these. In the first case, can […]