Innovation is a necessity in a changing world.  But what kind of innovation?

'Sustaining innovation' props up and temporarily fixes structures and processes that are failing – making them cheaper, faster, safer, more efficient.

'Disruptive innovation' shakes things up.  Typically however disruptive initiatives offer only short-term impact or are eventually adapted and ‘mainstreamed’ to help sustain existing systems.  That is particularly true in the public, social, cultural and civic sectors where the natural patterns of renewal that have been developed in market settings (creative destruction, sophisticated financial support etc.) are generally absent.

Only 'transformative innovation' can deliver a fundamental shift towards new patterns of viability in tune with our aspirations for the future.

This book offers a first stand-alone practical guide to how to realise transformative potential at scale.  It offers six elements for policymakers, funders and innovators:

Knowing:  how to expand our sense of what constitutes valid knowledge to become more comfortable with complexity
Imagining:  how to conceive, develop and design transformative initiatives to carry a group’s longer term aspirations
Being:  how to organise for action, manage the process, and sustain the people involved over time
Doing:  how to introduce the new in the presence of the old, enrol others and figure out what to do when you don’t know what to do
Enabling:  how to construct a policy framework for long term transition and provide smart financing to match
Supporting:  how to develop systems and structures to support a culture of renewal in our public, social and civic systems.

It concludes with an invitation to join a growing community of transformative innovators around the world – a network of hope in powerful times.

 

 

Reviews of the 1st Edition

"This a quiet and reflective book, and in both length and tone it is a refreshing antidote to the hundreds of over-excitable business books that are at heart vastly padded articles. When reading Transformative Innovation, you have a sense of the depth that sits behind every chapter. You can also pick up the tools and use them in your own practice, especially because the IFF, with its strong commitment to openness, has published much about them both on its own website and through an associated project, H3Uni.org. This rich and humane book should be on the shelf of every practicing futurist. "
Andrew Curry writing in APF Compass, Jan 2018 (see the full review)

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"This inspiring book was launched in Edinburgh in April at a reception to mark the 15th anniversary of the International Futures Forum  and it represents an excellent summary of many of its key insights into social and learning processes over this period.

Transformative innovation represents a ‘fundamental shift towards new patterns of viability in tune with our aspirations for the future.’ This contrasts with sustaining innovation that fixes the existing system and disruptive innovation that shakes it up. Following the introduction, the book consists of six chapters on knowing, imagining, being, doing, enabling and supporting. It outlines 10 characteristics of transformative innovation derived from IFF praxis: balance, in terms of operating in both the old and the new world; inspiring and hopeful; informed by a longer term perspective; pioneering a process rooted in discovery and learning; grounded; personally committed with our full self; responsible; revealing hidden resources; maintaining integrity and coherence of means and end; and maintaining a pioneering spirit even in the face of success. At this point, the reader will find a useful analysis of the evolution of a more adaptable way of providing care and support to old people.

... Pioneers in every field will find this book a rich resource."

 

From a review by David Lorimer in Network Review  - Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network (see the full review)