How can design driven interdisciplinary collaborative networks help business and the public sector innovate in a future-proof way?
Of course, our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that specialization precludes comprehensive thinking. (Buckminster Fuller)
We are living in a complex, interconnected and rapidly changing society. Design is an important part of this change. Nevertheless, we’ve been reading about warnings that design is lagging behind. Instead of offering solutions it is actually more and more recognized as part of the problem: not willing or able to confront the current social, environmental and economical challenges. (Predan forthcoming) Victor Margolin wrote that it is possible to reinvent design, If the will exists amongst designers. “If it doesn’t, designers will simply remain part of the problem whose solution other professions will need to invent.” (Margolin 2002)
Meanwhile more and more professionals choose to work as a freelancer. The number of freelancers in the EU increased by 45% from 6.2 million to 8.9 million in 2013, making them the fastest growing group in the EU labour market (Leighton and Brown 2013). In the USA 55 million professionals freelanced in 2016. This is 35% of the US workforce (Upwork 2016).
It is widely acknowledged that design can add value to the innovation processes in the business and public sector (Chiva and Alegre 2009, Dell’Era and Verganti 2007, Design Council 2015, Martin 2009) even on strategic level (Hill 2012, Holsten 2011, Holland and Lam 2014, Stevens 2010). Furthermore we see more and more evidences that interdisciplinarity is the key to successful innovation (Blackwell et al. 2010, Payne 2014, Barrett et al. 2011).
My hypothesis based on the trends described above is that in the world of hypercomplexity and hyper rapid changes the answer to the escalating economic and social problems can only be a complex, comprehensive solution. And such a solution is more likely to emerge from design focused interdisciplinary collaborative networks which I believe will have the advantage in innovation. These collaboratives are expected to deliver meaningful, feasible, sustainable, future-proof solutions.
A typical reason for forming a network is that there are synergies between the members, that is a network is more than the sum of the members (Provan and Kenis 2008). There are obvious potential benefits of collaborative networks like access to resources, knowledge, complementary skills and capacities, flexibility and responsiveness which allow each member to focus on its core competencies while keeping a high level of agility. “In addition to agility, the new organizational forms also induce innovation, and thus creation of new value, by confrontation of ideas and practices, combination of resources and technologies, and creation of synergies.” (Camarinha-Matos and Afsarmanesh 2006)
Scholars agree that such networks provide proper answers to wicked, complex problems (Isett et al. 2011) and are a nurturing environment for innovation activity (Hoberecht et al. 2011, Thorgren, Wincent, and Örtqvist 2009/9, Gloor 2006, A.T. Kearney and IMP3rove — European Innovation Management Academy 2015).
But there is no gain without pain. “Cross-sector collaborations, although a promising mechanism for addressing issues that are complex and interconnecting, are no panacea, and can create as well as solve problems.” (Janice K. et al. 2014) Some natural challenges occur by working in a collaborative network like achieving consensus, loss of autonomy, coordination fatigue and costs, management complexity, power imbalance and resulting conflict.
The crucial factors described by scholars to overcome this challenges are leadership and management (Provan and Kenis 2008, Huxham and Vangen 2013, Keast et al. 2004, Provan and Lemaire 2012). But they all missing the point by not taking the emerging management theories and practices into consideration. A close investigation of new approaches such as sociocracy, management 3.0 (Appelo 2010) and holacracy brings a new perspective to the management models of the networks.
Another novel viewpoint to the research of the collaborative networks would be the findings of behavioural science. Although the literature often describes collaborative network as a network of organizations but ultimately, it is people who collaborate. Such core factors as trust, engagement and motivation are subjects of behavioural science research.
My argument is that collaborative networks as we know them today are far from perfect. Designing an appropriate leadership and management system will help this networks to fulfil their potential. The final aim of this research is to design such system. Inspired by the business model canvas my ambition is to develop the collaborative network canvas, a practical tool to design successful interdisciplinary collaborative networks.
If you are interested in this research please contact me!
