Interaction Innovation

Sally Dominguez, futurist, inventor and entrepreneur, is an optimist in a world that is full of mistrust and fear. She leads with hope, because she sees the changes that we can make as a society, and as organizations, that will build trust, overcome fear, and create exponential growth for organizations and for humanity.

Companies will have to rethink the way they interact with their employees if they want to see growth. They must foster a climate of idea sharing from the bottom up, instead of top-down, so everyone in the organization feels valued and heard. Companies who don’t value their employees, who treat them like commodities and don’t make that human connection are not going to see growth. Dominguez emphasizes, “If you want to see growth, you need to enable every single person to be a part of that proposition by valuing idea-sharing, which is, you know, about human connection.” She also believes that Gen Z, the newest generation to enter the workforce, will demand changes in the way employers treat their employees. They won’t accept the old way of doing business. If companies don’t adapt, they are not going to attract the newest members of the workforce.

Companies will also need to shift the way they interact with their customers. They will need to increase transparency. They will need to build a more interactive and proactive relationship where they invite their customers to work with them to build the solutions and products they desire. This kind of relationship will foster trust in the organization, and a feeling of being valued and heard. This kind of relationship will lead to growth because consumers want to do business with companies they trust and that value them. Dominguez is also hopeful that in the face of the environmental challenges we face, companies will use that as an opportunity to make changes in regards to creating more sustainable technology for energy. She is seeing companies developing a more “circular mentality” when it comes to waste, where waste is seen as an upcycling opportunity.

The most important idea Dominguez wants to get across is “the importance of human connection, the importance of physical anchors so humans feel oriented in a digital era, and most importantly from my point of view, and from the innovation point of view, the most inclusive thing we can do as humans is idea-share. It doesn’t matter what color you are, how old you are, what language you have, we idea-share.” Human connection, idea sharing, and inclusivity are what give Dominguez optimism for the future of our society. Organizations and societies that want to grow and adapt to an ever-changing world must have these or they will not survive.

Humanity-Centric Innovation

What Contributes to Humanity-Centric Innovation?

When you have these three things together, you have a humanity-centric innovation. Dulcamera believes that the UN-17 Sustainable Development Goals gives a nice depiction for the greatest needs for humanity today. There is 17 parts to this list, which include:

  1. No poverty
  2. Zero hunger
  3. Good health and well-being
  4. Quality education
  5. Gender equality
  6. Clean water and sanitation
  7. Affordable and clean energy
  8. Decent work and economic growth
  9. Industry innovation and infrastructure
  10. Reduced inequalities
  11. Sustainable cities and communities
  12. Responsible consumption and production
  13. Climate action
  14. Life below water
  15. Life on land
  16. Peace, justice and strong institutions
  17. Partnerships for the goals

How to Drive Humanity-Centric Innovation for the Future

Dulcamara also points to the book, “The Future Is Faster Than You Think” by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler as a good example of business models in the 21st century. The book goes over different business models like the free data economy of Google and Facebook or the crowd economy of AirBnB and Uber. When he thinks of exponential technologies, he thinks of AI and quantum computing. Along with related things that bring us into the modern world.

The collision of these three areas together can bring about innovations to help solve these world-wide issues. Dulcamara shares that you have to have all three for the concept to work. He believes that we are in a time where businesses need to be created for a purpose. We as a society should be focused on creating businesses that can contribute and create humanity-centric innovations in the future.

Dulcamara goes on to explain that it is up to us to start driving humanity-centric innovation for the generations after us. We have to make sure that we are creating a sustainable future for not only our immediate future, but for the generations thousands of years from now. He is focused on creating a future where we use biodata and biomaterial more strategically. The parts might be worth more than the sum; biodata and biomaterials could be worth more than the products that are holding them. Used strategically, biomaterials could be utilized to innovate science and medicine to possibly cure cancer and Alzheimer’s. Looking towards 2023, Dulcamara believes it will be a challenge, but he believes in focusing on what we can control and influence now to make for a better future tomorrow.

Measurable Innovation

The culture and energy within the company is really what matters the most, according to Saclier. This is what will really drive innovation and exploration. He has many ideas on how to keep innovation thriving in a business, and one of the most important is creating bonds between all workers including those higher up. “Creating even more bonds and more relationships between the innovation team – which we know often in companies are living in an ivory tower- compared to the working teams and operations that are in sales, that are in the hands-on work day-to-day” Business and innovation cannot thrive if there is a divide.

In Saclier’s position, he believes companies have to create a pipeline between the old metrics and new metrics to increase the credibility of the different initiatives that they have. In other words, the old metrics are not simply outdated, but they can drive innovation and increase credibility in a way that works with the specific KPIs. Basically, they are creating a bond between the current and future business, providing a vision to make sure people understand where they are going. Then bringing it back to the beginning and getting closer to the KPIs that people are more comfortable with. In any successful business, the way to continue success is to learn from past metrics and processes in order to create newer and more relevant metrics for the future. 

In times of crisis and challenge, the most important thing, before innovation, is to make sure the team is working well. We cannot hope to be innovative if our team is struggling. Christian Saclier believes that companies should go back to basics, reassign staff to focus on the most important issues first, which will keep everything running in order to drive innovation and exploration. In order to be successful with KPIs, strategy, and measuring processes, it all comes back to the team, forging bonds “and creating more relationships so you have a better understanding of your business, how the company makes money- therefore you can be even more creative.” Team building comes before KPIs which drives innovation and exploration.

Certain Uncertainty

Magnus Lindvkist’s book, written as one of the best trend forecasters in the world, will help you understand how unexpected things happen and how they affect us as individuals, groups, and societies. Based on research and interviews with people whose lives have been “attacked” and deeply changed by the unexpected, this book tries to help you get over your fear of the unknown by teaching you to embrace it and use it to your advantage. It does this by walking you through the “uncertainty reframe” process, which involves rethinking your perspective and attitude toward uncertainty.

We are all worried about how the world is right now. So, why do we often ignore the changes going on all around us, or even worse, find ourselves unprepared when they do happen? What can we learn from all the bad things that have happened to us in recent years, from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to the financial crisis in 2008, to the current unrest in the Middle East? How often do long-term changes lie behind the daily news and buzzwords, and how can we spot them before they become common?

In this interesting book, Swedish futurologist Magnus Lindkvist uses a number of examples to show how people see and miss technological progress. He uses a funny tone to teach the reader how to spot trends at a time when we all need to better understand what personal, professional, and global events mean for us.

Long-term planning is so common in our society that we often ignore it or think it doesn’t matter. We use forecasts that are at best wrong to plan big things like vacations, retirement, school decisions, wedding vows, and business plans.

We need to stop making snap decisions and ignoring the need to plan for the long term.

Magnus Lindkvist, a futurist, says that the problem is that people aren’t taught how to think and plan for the long term. Many people think that trend analysis is the same thing as astrology or that it should be left to “trend gurus” or “pseudoscientists.” It might help us all see a better future and get ready for it. The world’s top expert on predicting future trends gives people tools they can use to make good decisions in everyday situations.

There is a lot of uncertainty in our lives. Everything in your life affects you in some way, from the people you meet to the things you do. But every once in a while, something completely out of the blue changes your path.

The idea is to accept uncertainty instead of trying to get rid of it.

Rolling Innovation

Extitutional thinking, Amber states, is an idea of thinking outside the normal routine of things. She believes that extitutional thinkers are “on the edge” of normal thinkers, thinking outside the box and always adapting to change.

Amber Case goes on to explain what an extitutional exclosure is by using the Greeks as an example. Speaking on how Greeks view time, there are two types of time, chronos and kairos. Chronos time is good for the corporate world, repeatable actions throughout the day. Kairos, she relates, is all about memories. The special moments in one’s life.

As Amber eludes, corporations can spend too much time in chronos time and not enough time in kairos time, leading to the stalling of innovative thinking and transformation. Workers get too attached to the way they have always done things and miss all the great changes that could have occurred if they focused on innovating and adapting.

Amber believes that corporations can be in both chronos and kairos time by having a small group of innovative thinkers that are always researching and developing new ideas that keep the company ever-evolving and not becoming stagnant.

Netflix is used as a great example for a company that tried to utilize innovations and succeeded once, but then did not have “rolling innovation”. They did not keep innovation as a focused goal of theirs, and suffered. Other companies have come along and overtook Netflix because they were focused on innovation and constantly evolving and adapting.

Amber states that companies need to always understand the environment that they are in, be able to map it out, and then execute change. As a company, you are never safe. Amber believes that companies need to constantly be on the edge looking for that new thing to keep the “rolling innovation” that is key for a successful company. It can be scary, but it’s worth it in the end. Change is not a comfortable space, but it is necessary to stay afloat in the ever-changing world of technology and business.

Amber Case closes out by touching on the fact that innovative thinking can be utilized in different manners. She highlights that companies can benefit exponentially not only from innovating but selling that innovative technology to other companies. Innovation is not only there to bring the company forward and adapt to change but also to make profits by selling that innovative technology to others.

Dyson is a company that Amber Case uses as a great example of this idea. They were focused on how loud a vacuum was and dedicated time and resources into creating a model that was quieter. Workers accomplished this and then Dyson sold the technology for an enormous profit. With their dedication, they created an innovation in a market that hadn’t had an innovation in over 40 years.

It’s always smart that companies understand the environment they are in and to adapt but also keep the consumers in mind and that they will actually need this innovation in the future. That is the key to a successful company.