There is a decision that feels right when we are stressed. It is the decision to wait a little with things that we are not sure about or secure in. We wait to give creativity space until the current workload has decreased. We wait with the innovation work until the […]
Innovation
169 posts
The greatest danger to a successful organization is rarely its competitors. The greatest danger is that it begins to believe that the system that once created success will also create tomorrow’s. It’s a tempting thought. When something works, we want to understand it, document it, and repeat it. We build […]
Imagine two companies that have been equally successful at developing new products for several years. In one company, there is a person who always comes up with the best ideas. Her colleagues know that when problems get really difficult, they just have to go to her. She sees connections that […]
The most robust system is rarely the most optimized. It is the system that has the greatest ability to continue to function when circumstances change. The same idea is now starting to gain increasing importance in innovation research. In a world where technology, society and markets are changing faster than […]
Take an organization where people are curious, brave, and full of ideas. In meetings, questions are asked that no one has thought of before. Employees experiment, help each other, and sometimes dare to fail because everyone knows that learning is more important than prestige. There is an energy in the […]
A development team has been working methodically for months to solve a complex problem. The solution is important, complicated, but not entirely clear. Then something happens. During a casual conversation, a person passing by happens to use the wrong word. Another person misunderstands what was meant. The group starts laughing […]
It is easy to think that innovators encounter resistance because their ideas are bad or unrealistic. Of course, this happens sometimes, but much more often the resistance is about something else entirely. New ideas challenge people’s sense of stability. We humans build mental models of how the world works. They […]
Imagine an old cabinetmaker who has worked with wood his whole life. Over decades, he has learned how different types of wood behave, how to stop a crack before it gets bigger, how an old table can be given another hundred years of life and how to sharpen a tool […]
Imagine two products standing next to each other in a store. One solves a real social problem, saves resources, improves the environment, and has been developed over many years by skilled engineers. The other actually adds very little. Maybe it’s just a new version of something that already exists, packaged […]
Imagine you are leading a creative workshop. Around the table are a designer, an engineer, an economist, a behavioral scientist, a marketer, and a lawyer. The conversation comes alive almost immediately. The designer sees the user experience, the engineer sees the technical possibilities, the economist thinks about the business model, […]
Imagine a building where people are constantly bumping into each other in the corridors. Irritation grows. The work environment deteriorates. For several years, people try to solve the problem by putting up signs, painting arrows on the floor, building wider corridors and introducing rules for how people should walk. Each […]
Imagine that you are standing in front of the mirror and thinking about changing your appearance. You can choose to put on a new hat. If you don’t like it, you can take it off five minutes later and no major damage has been done. You can also go to […]
Imagine you are buying an old house. At first glance, it looks charming, but when the renovation begins, you soon discover that the house has been rebuilt for over a hundred years. One room was once a porch. A kitchen has been moved. The electricity has been redone several times. […]
Imagine a region investing billions in new wind power. The technology works. Electricity is produced. Emissions are reduced. The project is considered a success. But a few years later, you discover that the transition has not been as extensive as hoped. Industry still uses fossil fuels to a large extent. […]
Imagine a road outside a growing city. Every morning it is filled with cars. The queues are getting longer. Accidents are increasing. Frustration grows. Politicians, planners and residents agree on the problem. The road is not enough. The solution seems obvious. A new road is being built. More lanes. Better […]
A colleague once told me that he tried to stop putting sugar in his coffee. It wasn’t his first attempt. He had tried several times before. He knew it would be better for his health. He knew that he didn’t really need the sugar. He also knew that many others […]
It often starts with a meeting that smells of coffee and efficiency. Someone says, “I have an idea.” Then something strange happens quickly. One person leans back and asks about the budget. Another wonders if there’s already a competitor doing the same thing. A third points out that “we actually […]
A programmer stays up late at night and posts code on the internet because it feels interesting. Some others start using it. Someone improves it a little. Someone builds on it. Suddenly half the internet uses the same basic technology and billion-dollar companies start making money on something that was […]
Imagine a big dinner where everyone contributes something. Someone brings bread, someone cooks a stew, someone arranges music and someone brings wine. The atmosphere is good. There is community, laughter and the feeling that this is something we are doing together. In the middle of the dinner, someone stands up […]
You sit there late one evening and look at your account. Three months ago it was full steam ahead. Customers were calling, invoices were being sent, everything felt like it had finally loosened up. Now it’s quiet. The calendar is empty. And somewhere in the back of your mind there’s […]
Imagine a room full of people who are extremely up to date. They have read all the reports, listened to all the podcasts and been to all the conferences. They know exactly what is happening in the world. But still nothing happens. When they are about to create something new, […]
Imagine a factory where everything works perfectly. The processes are optimized, waste is eliminated, and every step is carefully improved over time. The results are stable, the quality is high, and the efficiency is impressive. And yet something starts to rub. Someone asks an uncomfortable question. What if we are […]
You have assembled a brilliant team. An engineer from Germany, a designer from Italy, a project manager from Sweden and an entrepreneur from India. The skills are sky-high, the ambitions are too high. You sit down in a room to be creative. Silence ensues. Someone says something cautiously, someone else […]
Imagine a meeting where everyone agrees that they will collaborate. There is a good atmosphere, everyone contributes, tasks are distributed and deadlines are set. The project moves forward and everything feels correct. And yet something strange happens. Once the result is ready, it feels like something we have already seen […]
Imagine that you have built the perfect system. Everything is optimized. No unnecessary steps, no redundant resources, no variations. Every part does exactly what it is supposed to do, in exactly the right way. It is efficient, neat and almost beautiful. And it breaks down immediately when something unexpected happens. […]
It is easy to get carried away by possibilities. New technology arouses curiosity. It opens doors to futures we can barely imagine. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, autonomous systems and space technology create a feeling that anything is possible. And that is precisely what makes innovation so attractive. But there is a […]
Politicians are often described as those in power. They are elected, appointed and scrutinised for their ability to govern, prioritise and make decisions. This creates an image that they control the development of a country, including innovation. And to some extent this is true. But there is a crucial exception. […]
There is a recurring tension in the world of innovation. On one side is the desire to create, test and share. On the other side is the need to protect, regulate and secure. Many innovators feel that law slows down development. Many lawyers feel that law is what makes development […]
It’s a thought that almost everyone who works with change has had at some point. You see a problem. You think it through. And suddenly the solution seems almost obvious. It could be about the climate, about how organizations should work or about how resources could be used smarter. You […]
System innovation rarely moves at a steady pace. When working to change entire systems, you are almost always dependent on many different actors. Companies. Municipalities. Authorities. Researchers. Residents. Financiers. Each of them has their own logic, their own decision-making processes and their own pace. This means that system change almost […]