Cultivating Value through Innovation

Peer M SathikhActing Associate Chair (Acacemic)

School of Art, Design and Media Nanyang Technological

UniversitySingapore

I will be flying like a bee, hopping from one idea to another in order to

get to what I want to tell you all.

Flight Plan

+ Child like mind + Conducive

environment

+ Culture & Leadership =

+

[Human Intervention]

Inherent human ability to ideate

Valuable innovation

NCIIA 2010

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HumanitiesScience &

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Humor | comedy Play | DramaPoetry | Music Paintings | Sculpture

Theory of Evolution ElectricityAtomic Theory Psychology

Cloning Airplane | SpaceshipPower Station Democratic Government

Mental Approach

Creative Approach

Appr

oach

Parameters

Progress

Realm | of creativity and innovation NCIIA 2010

Sustaining | innovation | the ingredients

Conducive Environment

Person Process

Leadership | vision and focus

NCIIA 2011

Value is largely subjective, determined differently by various ‘selectors’

2012 -Value

Cultivating Value through Innovation

All of us are a part of different selector system with our own norms, values and expectations

Value Selector

A small change in selecting the criteria - norms, values and expectations – in a selection system may lead to totally different selection !

Value Selector

Selection brings me to…

Value Selection

Danny Jacobs in his book Adding Values : The Cultural Side of Innovation

Darwinian Value

Selection and Innovation

…we can see innovation as a genetic recombination or mutation (variation) which is accepted (selection) or not by the environment (selection system) and possibly survives for a long time (retention or speciation)

When ‘intelligence’ is involved we can include sorting after the selection system…

Darwinian Value

Selection and Innovation

Darwinian Value

Selection and Innovation

Technical mutation > new species

Neo-Darwinian Change Agents ?

My pivotal moment

My pivotal moment

Intelligence is what we use when we don’t know what to do

There is more to being intelligent – a creative aspect, whereby you invent something new ‘on the fly’……which implies the ability to slip the bonds of instinct and generate novel solutions to problems…

Pivot 1: Creativity

Only human beings are ‘intelligent’ because we have the capacity to plan… and change the environment thus influencing the selection system and alter the survival chance !

This makes us creative

Pivot 2: Innovation

We need to constantly use creativity in our intelligence armor to continuously plan, change the environment and influence the selection system in order to succeed and sustain the survival (of the original intent)

This makes us innovative

Look up to see the goal: building the value

Successful innovation requires the following :

A common ‘syntax’ that founds ‘intelligence’ (and creativity)

Use this syntax to create ‘mental models’ that can be propagated

With these mental models, allow for a Darwinian Process to build the mental models into successful outcomes

Continue with the Darwinian Process for every mental model (every aspect) to build on the success and sustain the final model

Start the play: building the value

A common ‘syntax’

This how we select our friends, partners, colleagues and employees…

That is why we have selection process – tests, interviews, etc.

Syntax is language centred…

Move the ball: building the value

‘mental models’ need to be propagated

‘The name of the game is to re-create your mental model in the listener’s mind. The recipient of your message will need to know the same mental grammar…So syntax is about structuring relationships between items in your (underlying) mental model…

This is important. And ‘Change Agents’ are good at it.

Move the ball: building the value

‘mental models’ need to be understood !

Shoot: building the value

Darwinian Process building mental models into success

The brain model / Darwinian innovation involes

Setting a pattern (meme of sorts)

Allow for rapid copying of this pattern

Occasional change in patterns may offer insights for future

The process allows for copying competitions… this way variants are created

Relative success of the variants is influenced by multi-faceted environment in order for natural selection to occur

Take the lead: building the value

sustain the success of innovation

‘The next generation is based on which variants survive to reproductive age and successfully mate’

By this there is a ‘surprising Darwinian drift toward patterns that almost seem designed for the environment !

In this model of innovation value is built in (intrinsic) to survive in emerging

environments… not on expectations

But the tricky part is having the intelligence to set those patterns !

Thank you !