Innovation Dialogue: How to Be Strategic in The Face of Complexity
Dear Colleagues,
How often do you question what will work in a complex and messy situation? Like many of us you are probably working to bring about some strategic change for the better – developing sustainable business models, innovating to help overcome poverty or tackling environmental sustainability and climate change. But what interventions make sense when much is unpredictable and uncertain? What is possible when the biggest impacts come from the unforeseen or serendipitous events. Are there alternatives to linear ways of planning, strategizing and making policy?
If such questions are on your mind please join us for an Innovation Dialogue: How to Be Strategic in The Face of Complexity – Implications for Global Development Capacities, on November 30 and December 1, 2009. An announcement is attached. Please feel free to share this announcement with others you think may be interested.
We expect a high level of interest in this event so please register early as we have limited places. The deadline for application is November 1st. You can register at http://tinyurl.com/complexityID
The dialogue will be shaped by inspiring and challenging insights from an exceptional group of key note presenters. Their inputs will be complemented by workshop contributions from practitioners and academics working on the challenges of change and complexity.
Key Note Presenters (click for more information on people and organisations):
David Snowden – The founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge. His work is in the area of naturalizing sense-making, seeking to base social science research and practice in the natural science. He is generally considered to be a pioneer in the application of complex adaptive systems theory to a range of social issues, and in the development of narrative as a research method. He previously worked for IBM where he was a Director of the Institution for Knowledge Management and founded the Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity.
Lisa Jordan – Executive Director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation. She has worked for the U.S. Congress, with Members of the European Parliament and with the Japanese Diet on global environmental issues. In her most recent role as Acting Director of the Governance and Civil Society Unit at the Ford Foundation, she was responsible for programming across ten field offices. She has published books and articles on the topics of globalization, global civil society and NGO accountability.
Alejandro Litovsky – Head of the Pathways to Scale programme at Volans, which is creating solutions and partnerships for scaling up the impact of social and environmental innovations and entrepreneurs. He works with clients to design institutional strategies that support entrepreneurial approaches to development. Volans is a for-profit company that work globally with entrepreneurs, businesses, investors and governments to develop and scale innovative solutions to financial, social and environmental challenges.
John Young – Director of Programmes at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). He works on decentralisation and rural services, information and information systems, strengthening southern research capacity, and the research-policy interface. He is Director of the Research and Policy In Development (RAPID) Group, and also manages the Civil Society Partnerships Programme.
The Innovation Dialogue is being jointly organised by Wageningen International, the Communication and Innovation Studies Group, the Public Administration & Policy Group and the Disaster Studies Group of Wageningen UR. Pre Dialogue discussions and outcomes from the event will be available through our media partner The Broker (www.thebrokeronline.eu).
We hope you may be able to join us on November 30 and December 1.
Best regards,
Jim Woodhill
Attached resources
[.pdf] Innovation Dialogue: How to Be Strategic in The Face of Complexity
Innovation Dialogue: How to Be Strategic in The Face of Complexity
Dear Colleagues,
How often do you question what will work in a complex and messy situation? Like many of us you are probably working to bring about some strategic change for the better – developing sustainable business models, innovating to help overcome poverty or tackling environmental sustainability and climate change. But what interventions make sense when much is unpredictable and uncertain? What is possible when the biggest impacts come from the unforeseen or serendipitous events. Are there alternatives to linear ways of planning, strategizing and making policy?
If such questions are on your mind please join us for an Innovation Dialogue: How to Be Strategic in The Face of Complexity – Implications for Global Development Capacities, on November 30 and December 1, 2009. An announcement is attached. Please feel free to share this announcement with others you think may be interested.
We expect a high level of interest in this event so please register early as we have limited places. The deadline for application is November 1st. You can register at http://tinyurl.com/complexityID
The dialogue will be shaped by inspiring and challenging insights from an exceptional group of key note presenters. Their inputs will be complemented by workshop contributions from practitioners and academics working on the challenges of change and complexity.
Key Note Presenters (click for more information on people and organisations):
David Snowden – The founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge. His work is in the area of naturalizing sense-making, seeking to base social science research and practice in the natural science. He is generally considered to be a pioneer in the application of complex adaptive systems theory to a range of social issues, and in the development of narrative as a research method. He previously worked for IBM where he was a Director of the Institution for Knowledge Management and founded the Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity.
Lisa Jordan – Executive Director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation. She has worked for the U.S. Congress, with Members of the European Parliament and with the Japanese Diet on global environmental issues. In her most recent role as Acting Director of the Governance and Civil Society Unit at the Ford Foundation, she was responsible for programming across ten field offices. She has published books and articles on the topics of globalization, global civil society and NGO accountability.
Alejandro Litovsky – Head of the Pathways to Scale programme at Volans, which is creating solutions and partnerships for scaling up the impact of social and environmental innovations and entrepreneurs. He works with clients to design institutional strategies that support entrepreneurial approaches to development. Volans is a for-profit company that work globally with entrepreneurs, businesses, investors and governments to develop and scale innovative solutions to financial, social and environmental challenges.
John Young – Director of Programmes at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). He works on decentralisation and rural services, information and information systems, strengthening southern research capacity, and the research-policy interface. He is Director of the Research and Policy In Development (RAPID) Group, and also manages the Civil Society Partnerships Programme.
The Innovation Dialogue is being jointly organised by Wageningen International, the Communication and Innovation Studies Group, the Public Administration & Policy Group and the Disaster Studies Group of Wageningen UR. Pre Dialogue discussions and outcomes from the event will be available through our media partner The Broker (www.thebrokeronline.eu).
We hope you may be able to join us on November 30 and December 1.
Best regards,
Jim Woodhill
Attached resources
[.pdf] Innovation Dialogue: How to Be Strategic in The Face of Complexity