3 Things Read This Week…
3 things I have read this week that I really like and that have got me thinking about how you can attempt to create spaces/environments and practices for innovation…
Steven Johnson on patterns of creativity and innovation in Where Good Ideas Come From. Loving this read…
“In the language of complexity theory, these patterns of innovation and creativity are fractal: they reappear in recognizable form as you zoom in and out, from molecule to neuron to pixel to sidewalk. Whether you’re looking at the original innovations of carbon-based life, or the explosion of new software tools on the Web, the same shapes keep turning up. When life gets creative, it has a tendency to gravitate toward certain recurring patterns, whether those patterns are emergent and self-organizing, or whether they are deliberately crafted by human agents”
Google’s Torrence Boone on the shifting interplay between technology and creativity, and how agencies need to adapt and evolve their offerings…
“Technology is unleashing previously unforeseen creative possibilities. Just five years ago, creativity was ahead of technology — we aspired to so much that our platforms could not deliver. Today it’s reversed: Technology is out in front of our creativity, challenging us to tap into the white space it creates on a seemingly continual basis. For example, where I work now, we’re inspired by our agency partners who engage us upstream in the ideation process and consider it a mission to find ever more inventive ways of mashing up our products to create unique brand experiences that delight and move people to action”
Ben Malbon, also of Google, on a simple mantra they use at Creative Labs. A guiding principle of innovation…
“At the Creative Lab we are guided by a simple mantra: ‘Know the User, Know the Magic, Connect the Two’ (coined by Andy Berndt, who founded the CL). Simply put, this could well be the remit of the CIO (Chief Innovation Officer): to be responsible for understanding how people are behaving with technology, media and communications, to be at the forefront of understanding how current and emerging technology can deliver magic for users, and to connect the two (all, of course, through the lens of that agency’s current or desired client base)”
For me the learning is clear.
1- Simply put, innovation today is the outcome of the mulchy area (cf. Johnson’s primordial soup) where human creativity and objective potential (‘The Web’ in Steven’s book, ‘The Technology’ in Torrence’s article, or ‘The Magic’ in Ben’s blog) interact. This is made increasingly exciting in a post-digital age - this space of innovation becomes increasingly hard to see.
2-The importance of this ‘space of innovation’ to the comms industry is increasingly present as the ways people communicate and form networks (amongst themselves and their things) are increasingly new - born out of this innovative mulch.
3-Google really get this. Agencies increasingly need to position themselves in this innovative space in order give their clients the presence they pay for. i think the likes Google, Facebook etc will lead the way (More of Ben Malbon’s ilk will end up in these companies)
4- The implication for my particular space in the industry - as someone in ethnographic & qualitative research and brand strategy - is that utilising and growing a deeper understanding of the mechanics of digital networks, through which much human communication or agency occurs, will be critical to maintain the relevance and efficacy of human-centric research in these increasingly important spaces of innovation. In essence, a post-digital age requires post-digital researchers?!?
