Neo didn’t know from the beginning what was wrong. Just that something was wrong. A feeling that the world wasn’t quite right, that reality was a shell, a backdrop. That’s exactly how the work of system innovation begins. Not with solutions. Not with strategies. But with doubts. You sit there, […]
Yearly Archives: 2025
157 posts
Measuring is a fundamental part of organizational management. What we measure tends to get done because we focus on what is visible, explainable, and evaluable. But innovation is something completely different from production and improvement work. Innovation is a creative and uncontrollable process that does not grow from measurement but […]
As societal challenges become more complex, the way we organize innovation, value creation and collaboration is also changing. Traditional organizations with clear boundaries, hierarchies and ownership structures have difficulties dealing with issues that span industries, sectors and geographies. In this landscape, the concept of a keystone organization has emerged as […]
There is one evening every year when the world becomes a little softer. You know the one I mean. When the snow muffles all sounds, when the lights in the windows twinkle as if whispering secrets to each other and when time, for a moment, decides to slow down. That’s […]
It rarely starts out pretty. Innovation never does. It starts more like Die Hard: late at night, wrong place, wrong people, and a system that looks stable on the surface but is rotten behind the glass facade. You walk in with good intentions, maybe even a smile, and suddenly you […]
Causal Loop Hackathons are popular tools in systems innovation because they combine rapid problem solving with visualization of system dynamics. They give participants the opportunity to openly explore, question, and hack the assumptions that govern a complex system. The result is often a deeper understanding of drivers and levers that […]
Outcome Harvesting is a method for identifying, analyzing and understanding changes that have already occurred in a system, regardless of whether they were planned, unplanned, positive or negative. Unlike traditional impact measurement, the method does not start from predetermined goals but from observed results in reality. This makes it particularly […]
System innovation is not just about creating new solutions. It is just as much about getting the solutions to spread, integrate and become part of the new system. A pilot can be fantastic, but without scaling it does not affect the whole system. By the time a solution reaches the […]
System innovation depends on actors with different logics, drivers and goals being able to collaborate. But in practice it is often difficult to see these differences because each actor primarily understands the world from their own horizon. Role-playing is therefore one of the most effective tools for making the logic […]
Systems innovation is fundamentally about people. Technology, policies and structures can change, but if behaviours do not, the system will continue to produce the same results. Therefore, the behavioural level is not a side track in systems innovation, but a central hub. Understanding how behaviours are formed, how they spread […]
System innovation occurs in complex, dynamic and often unpredictable environments. This means that traditional measurement methods do not capture the changes that actually matter. Classic KPIs are based on linear assumptions where input leads to results in a predictable chain. In system change, reality works differently. Effects often arise as […]
Designing complex systems requires methods that can handle many actors, long time horizons and interwoven dependencies. In this context, it is not enough to develop a single service or product. Tools are needed that make it possible to prototype relationships, roles, incentives, processes, policies and market logics. System-adapted sprints are […]
Backcasting is a method that reverses the traditional way of planning development. Instead of starting with the current situation and gradually trying to identify ways forward, backcasting starts from a desired future. You define a goal that lies beyond today’s limitations and work backwards to identify the steps, conditions and […]
The Theory of Change has become an established method for describing how a desired future can be achieved through a chain of assumptions, interventions and mechanisms. The method is often used in project logic, social development and sustainability work. Basically, the Theory of Change is about mapping a logical chain […]
Language shapes our reality. When we are given a word for something, a concept, a feeling or a phenomenon, we can handle it, reflect on it and give it structured attention. Naming provides distance, clarity and power. In the context of development and innovation, the meaning of words therefore becomes […]
Organizations are complex social systems where people try to work together to achieve something together. Despite this, the focus often ends up on structures, processes and individual behaviors, while one of the central factors is overlooked: leadership. When mistakes are made, when conflicts arise or when projects fall apart, attention […]
Crisis is a state that no one wants. It is associated with uncertainty, anxiety and often both stress and loss. But from an innovation perspective, there is a paradoxical quality to crises. They force us to stop accepting the current situation and stop giving us the opportunity to postpone the […]
Creating time for innovation is one of the biggest practical challenges for both individuals and organizations. Although many people talk about innovation as something important, it often ends up at the bottom of the to-do list. The urgent takes precedence over the important. Administrative tasks crowd out the creative. The […]
Systems innovation can seem difficult at first glance because the word is often associated with abstract models, complex schemes and cross-sectoral collaborations. A clearer way to understand the concept is to read it backwards. Systems innovation is simply “innovation of systems”. When you see it, you realize that the complexity […]
In innovation work, people sometimes talk about explore and exploit. These two concepts describe two fundamentally different ways of relating to development. Explore is about seeking new opportunities, experimenting and exploring unknown territory. Exploit is about refining, streamlining and scaling up what you already do well. Both are necessary and […]
Leading creative workshops is an art form that combines psychology, pedagogy and practical experience. The result depends not only on the exercises but also to a large extent on how the process is designed and implemented. In practice, it is often small details that determine whether a workshop will be […]
When people or organizations come together to create something new, a strange and often underestimated stage occurs. In the beginning, there is enthusiasm, consensus and the kind of generosity that only exists when everything is still possible. People plan, allocate resources and say that they will work together with openness […]
We live in a society where much of what happens between people happens without us ever meeting. Our actions, decisions and expressions create ripples in the water that continue long after we have moved on. This invisible structure, this web of influence, is something we all contribute to. It is […]
Modern society is characterized by control. We plan our careers, our projects, our investments and our life choices as if the future were a function of how well we can optimize the present. But beneath the surface of planning and order lies a force that influences us more than we […]
Rethinking business models is one of the most challenging forms of innovation. Many organizations have a good understanding of how their products and services work, but far fewer reflect on the logic that makes the business possible, how value is created, delivered and captured. The Business Model Canvas, developed by […]
The term Innovation Valley describes a new type of geographical and thematic innovation cluster where business, academia, society and civil society collaborate in a common vision. While Silicon Valley became the symbol of digital and technological innovation during the 20th and 21st centuries, Innovation Valleys represent the next wave. A […]
Innovation is a way of solving problems in new ways. But not all problems require the same type of thinking, and not all organizations approach them in the same way. In today’s world, where both complexity and the pace of change are increasing, the difference between algorithmic and heuristic innovation […]
Living Labs have emerged over the past decades as one of the most powerful methods for exploring and testing new solutions in real-world environments. In an era where sustainability, circularity and system innovation are in focus, arenas are needed where ideas are not just planned but lived. Living Labs are […]
It happens time and time again. A small start-up enters an established field and in a few years changes the rules of the game so drastically that previously dominant companies are suddenly in the shadows. Why does this happen? What does the journey look like from the perspective of the […]
Systems innovation is about understanding and changing complex wholes. But before you can change something, you have to be able to see it. That’s why systems mapping is one of the most powerful methods in systems thinking. Creating a map of a system doesn’t just mean visualizing how different parts […]