TL; TR: Embarking on the Rural Innovation Odyssey: Nurturing Economic Cohesion & Community Development in Atlantic Canada
Innovation is a complex and multi-faceted concept that has become a buzzword in today’s society. This evolution traces back to the early 2000s, a period during which my journey unfolded, progressing from the era of dial-up internet to the current ability to work across borders using just a laptop seamlessly. The ability to navigate innovation has provided me with a unique perspective. My approach to understanding innovation stems from growing up in an emerging country that uses innovation to develop economic sustainability. The desire to create economic sustainability when your environment has physical and logistical limitations encourages a culture of innovation that grows simply out of survival.
When you think of economic sustainability, viewing it from a linear perspective is simply viewing it through the lens of “traditional” innovation. However, in the modern context, there are limited differences between public and private governance cultures when encouraging innovation. From a management perspective, innovation occurs for two reasons:
(1) internal factors that make the status quo less competitive; and
(2) the macroeconomic factors that cause systems to shift to survive. [1]
A community-centric economic development strategy should have innovation woven through it. Regions’ public and private governance structures need to understand that solving one’s economic challenges must embrace the opportunity of sustainable development. There is an interesting parallel to explore when looking at social and business innovation from an economic development perspective. This research journey is rooted in personal experiences and informed by the importance of embracing a regional perspective. My desire to understand the governance culture of adopting innovation stems from seeing a desire for innovative economic development. Navigating transformational change is an intricate dance between building an environment for innovation and understanding the governance culture.
My Background: Blame it on Colonization
Governance and innovation ecosystems within Commonwealth structures have an unspoken yet prevailing colonial underpinning within their cultures. Like most of my writings, I have started to call this characteristic the colonial bug. When looking at building an innovation ecosystem, the colonial bug creates a tall poppy syndrome that poses a challenge to the construction of the idea. The quest to change systems in the context of innovation has always been rooted in exploring the collective for the individual. You can see this through the Americas, with two questions echoing through communities: What does the future hold, and how can it improve their quality of life? As I embark on this journey of building a consulting firm that focuses on community-based innovation, these thoughts also occupy my mind.
The futurist within me envisions our complex challenges as the next era of innovation. How to build a future that can advocate and embrace the idea of a diverse governance culture. This concept carries an inherent empowerment, especially when viewed through decolonization practices that embrace co-creation. Admittedly, my optimism is ambitious. However, this ambition stems from working within the social innovation space throughout a pandemic, making me realize our governance structures limit innovation.
Since COVID-19, I have been in the space of understanding economic and social cohesion in the context of exploring what is needed for co-creation. The transformed landscape by COVID-19 encouraged me to explore what is needed for economic and social cohesion, particularly in fostering innovation environments. The pandemic shed light on colonial bugs hindering human-centred approaches to policy innovation in a complex world. This flaw in our modern policy development structure is disproportionately affecting individuals within marginalized communities.
The inability to strategize as a collection of communities shows our flaws within our social and economic frameworks. Rather, it was governments, companies, or small businesses — we can not embrace an agile nature because we lack a true definition of collective innovation. The lack of adaption to socially minded innovation has limited our societal productivity. My experience as a policy professional throughout the pandemic ultimately showcased that the structure needs restructuring.
What’s the problem?
Throughout my experience, I’ve realized the concept of innovation is often used as a buzzword, with nonprofits and even governments adopting the practice of ‘disrupting’ systems. However, my exposure to different forms of innovation has led me to realize that true innovation is as strong as the action behind the quest. When you look at innovation at face value, true research and development strives when the environment is healthy, can collaborate, and has the resources to test solutions.
I’ve noticed a pattern after working within four ‘innovation’ units. Each design started as an idea to ‘disrupt’ a system and to solve a complex problem. Yet, as I sit here (not employed with these units anymore) writing about innovation at a café, I reflect on how each unit didn’t have a healthy innovation environment. This deficiency stemmed from a failure to understand the importance of strategizing as a collection of communities. At the core of these units, the failure stemmed because innovating within a colonial place couldn’t be done.
While these units practiced the art of knowledge building, the quest for innovation didnt transition throughout the organization. The lack of integration within the organization made these units become mere branding exercises, hindering transformational change.
This connects to my point of innovation being a buzzword due to our tendency not to seek an understanding of the complexity of our systems. This lack of understanding pits innovators against late adopters, causing a governance culture clash [1]. The DNA of governance cultures within Commonwealth Nations has always viewed innovation as a linear action.
As outlined throughout my work with Inspiring Communities’, I stated, “If the community has problem A, we use solution B to fix it because solution B comes from a “specialized” stakeholder group that understands the sport of policy.” When viewed through the lens of innovation adoption, the idea of giving up power causes the colonial-based ecosystems to fight back. We seek to fight back because we have placed the quest for innovation in a linear state. We seek to innovate to seize individual benefit, but truly, we should view it through the lens of collective benefit.
When you look at the quest for innovation, some see fear. Still, I see an orchestra of influences that can shape an environment that can explore collective problem-solving. Cultivating a regional innovation ecosystem that prioritizes a collective approach normalizes the idea of strategizing as a collection of communities. The impact could be an impactful one. The potential impact of shifting power can be profound, fostering an environment that allows innovation to flourish for the greater good.
Phase Zero: Researching what’s needed
For the last nine years, I have realized that Atlantic Canada is living through a shifting dynamic resulting in economic, environmental, and social challenges. Recognizing the importance of community dynamics, I am exploring what is needed for a transformative approach that nurtures innovation at the local level. This approach intersects economic development, regional cohesion, and climate readiness within a business-centric perspective. The importance of the local community allows me to explore the shift in municipal innovation that explores what is needed to encourage an environment of collaboration.
At the heart of my exploration, I want to explore what a co-created innovation ecosystem looks like that explores the cross-section of economic development, regional cohesion, and impacts of climate readiness from a business perspective. We face pressing ecological, economic, and social challenges, resulting in our governance systems craving the desire to foster collaboration and build capacity for knowledge sharing and novel solutions. This pursuit of transformational change becomes even more pertinent as physical and governance environments shift rapidly.
From a business perspective, I am interested in understanding what is needed to create disruptive innovation that breaks our cycles. But also explore what’s needed to encourage sustaining innovation that adopts an ideology of building with the economic development ecosystem. Looking at transformational change within ecosystems sounds and is an ambitious initiative. It is critical because, as I write this, we see our physical environments shift, disrupting governance environments.
I’m putting forth this theory through the creation of the “Town Project.” During Phase Zero, I aim to understand, document, and forest a collective understanding surrounding the barriers and enablers within municipal innovation and policy development. As I am based in rural Atlantic Canada, I will explore the idea through learning journeys, travelling and understanding the economic and community development lens of different coastal communities.
My affinity for the Atlantic Ocean, a source of inspiration, drives my curiosity. I am interested to see how an Ocean that sparked the foundation of our modern-day society can spark micro-chain reactions of innovation that focus on economic, environmental and social development. I want to explore the similarities and differences in how communities approach economic innovation.
Starting Phase Zero, I intend to understand the root of the economic expansion of the Americas and Caribbean Nations. It is easy to focus on the urban centres, but their economic frameworks owe their richness to rural and isolated communities.
Phase Zero will cultivate an ecosystem that supports and nurtures innovation. By understanding:
- Community Collection: Gathering diverse communities to fuel cross-pollination ideas
- Historical Exploration: Unveiling economic and social challenges woven into history’s fabric.
- “Colonial Bug” unlearning: Shedding the ideology of servitude and building environments of collaboration
- Ecosystem Cultivation: Exploring what is needed for the ecosystem to thrive.
I want to explore the shifting paradigm of a world that is needed for innovative solutions to solve our complex hairy problems. This project’s core purpose is to explore what is needed to build a financially, socially, and politically fortified environment that nurtures innovation. This includes defining and understanding what innovation means in a divided ecosystem that requires innovation to strive.
As I venture on this journey, I want folks to realize that innovation is more than just introducing something new or different. It’s an art form that involves a collective goal and requires a healthy environment to thrive. It is important to consider the role of education in fostering innovation and explore ways to provide opportunities for lifelong learning and skill development to support individuals and the community as a whole.
By collaborating and co-creating a vision for the future of economic and community development, the “Town Project” can serve as a testbed for cultivating an inclusive innovation environment, intertwining perspectives from all facets of society — government, businesses, nonprofits, and community members. By understanding and embracing this concept, we can create an environment that fosters innovation and helps us achieve our goals.
In this journey, I invite you to join me in shaping this idea. I am currently self-funding this project. As I connect the dots surrounding dissolving the barriers to rural innovation, I want to understand what is needed to explore sustainable funding for this idea.
As part of Phase Zero, I must identify and engage with stakeholders from all community sectors, including government, businesses, nonprofits, and community members. If you know of innovators, change makers, and believers of rural innovation, please connect me.
Can you help me on this journey?
References
[1] https://www.oecd.org/science/oslo-manual-2018-9789264304604-en.htm
