Darja Isaksson – How to organise innovation
“Uncertainty is scary but also incredibly amazing.” Nowadays, we can often feel like everyone is innovating only for the sake of innovation. In this talk, Darja Isaksson looks beyond the buzzword and explores how we might navigate uncertainty and complexity to create sustainable organisations.
Sweden has for a long time been a prime example of an innovative country. The old paradigm that this innovation model is built upon leans on three pillars: culture (characterised by boldness, openness, trust and a willingness to pay it forward), infrastructure (bases on reforms, policies, investments in infrastructures like available internet and making research in R&D a priority) and opportunity (creating possibilities, lower thresholds to take risks to try out new things and connecting innovators). But will this paradigm also work out in the future? How can Sweden - or any other country or organisation - foster a mindset and capability to adapt to ever-changing conditions and circumstances?
Darja reminds us that we are capable of rapid, radical, large-scale change as a global community. During the pandemic, Sweden as a community proved the capacity to be humble enough to acknowledge that we do not have all the answers. This allowed for conversations around radical, necessary societal change. Will you join the impact innovation mission that makes the most sense to you? The speaker encourages us to focus on societal outcomes that we really want while bringing together politicians, citizens and companies that are impacted by this transformation and then unpack the challenges and co-create new solutions.
