Giving Compass' Take:

• Jimmy Jia explains the processes of innovation and how energy strategists can utilize these processes for creative problem-solving.

• What are the ways that donors can partner with scientists to drive progress in tech innovation?

• Read about these innovative solutions for climate change.

Meso-innovations are the stereotypical "innovation" most people think of — the smartphone, the self-driving automobile, a possible HIV vaccine, and so forth. By the time these technologies are presented to the public, they seem like giant leaps forward. Yet they start their lives as new links created between concepts, people, fields, and take years of arduous incremental improvements. This combinatorial process is also known as the adjacent possible, a deterministic model of the delivery of insight.

As mentioned in Untapped Innovations (Unknown Knowns), some ideas are right in front of us but no one has noticed them before. When one mixes contextual backgrounds and perspectives, these gaps in knowledge might flash before us, creating moments of insights. Yet a new idea to one community might be standard practice to another. In fact, one way to look for out-of-the-box solutions is to find a different system with similar properties and borrow their methodologies.

Energy strategists will need new solutions to tackle our critical problems. The technologies, methodologies, and practices that got us here won’t get us out again. Whether inventing new frameworks, new products, or adapting existing ones to contemporary priorities, energy strategists will need to fill gaps with emergent innovations.

  • Weak Ties: Strengths of Relationships Interpersonal relationships govern how information spreads within and among communities. These relationships are found between friends in a clique, professionals in an association, or a loose group of hobbyists. The strengths of these relationships can limit or spawn ideas, collaborations and innovations.
  • Brainstorming: Generating Ideas Brainstorming is a way of conducting a creativity exercise that unlocks ideas to solve a specific problem. Popularized by Alex Osborn, it is best used to help people be spontaneous in the free-wheeling generation of ideas and removing inhibitions that might hold them back.

Read the full article about implementing new innovations by Jimmy Jia at FocusTechnica.