Do Bigger Things

Take on “messy challenges.”

Messy challenges such as poverty and climate change resist the kind of innovation that results in new apps or otherwise fine-tunes the status quo. These challenges demand innovation that takes existing concepts, tools, and expertise and organizes them into new, problem-solving ecosystems.

“The big shift in thinking is to see that, in every case, the innovation is the ecosystem.”

For example, one messy challenge in India is “needless blindness.” The majority of the country’s 12 million blind people have cataracts that require corrective surgery; most lack access to medical treatments. Solving this messy challenge requires training more doctors, lowering the cost of medical products, and improving access to medical care. A piecemeal approach won’t work. An integrated system linking all the problem’s components is the only solution.

Aravind Eye Care, for example, achieves this integration with a “treatment ecosystem” of patients, nurses, doctors, training, and low-cost medical products. Patients needing cataract surgery come to Aravind’s hospitals. Nurses take their vital signs, test their eyes, prep them for surgery, and move them into an operating room with at least two operating tables. Doctors perform surgery on one patient and then the other. This streamlined system allows for six to eight surgeries per hour, rather than the standard rate of one per hour. Aravind produces eye lenses locally, which creates jobs, avoids imports, and allows for quality surgical outcomes on par with the UK’s National Health Service at one-thousandth the cost.

“Ecosystem innovation” connects people, organizations, and technologies to solve big problems.

Start-ups, nonprofits, and large companies assemble real-world “Lego blocks” — people, organizations, and technology — into cohesive ecosystems. The innovation lies in the unique way these entities combine blocks, not in the individual blocks themselves.

“No invention is an island. To succeed, individual inventions must be part of an ecosystem of people, organizations, and technology.”

Ecosystem innovation works for all kinds of complex opportunities. This includes enormous problems such as climate change or disrupting an industry. People can also use it for innovations at a much smaller scale, such as reimagining how a corner bakery might work in a changing marketplace. In every case, there is a complex challenge that demands a solution where all the parts work together and everyone in the ecosystem benefits.

Ecosystem innovations rely on specific sources of power.

Airbnb exemplifies ecosystem innovation. By connecting the Lego blocks of people, places, and technology into one connected system, Airbnb grew from renting out a few air mattresses in San Francisco to sharing six million listings across the globe.

“Problems and solutions are in constant flux; hence, problems do not stay solved.” (American organizational theorist Russell Lincoln Ackoff)

The ability of ecosystems such as Airbnb to grow rests on these sources of power:

1. “Lots of building blocks” — Whether it’s people learning new skills, assets being underused, or innovative technologies being developed, more building blocks exist now than at any other time in history.
2. “Built-in motivations” — Different motivations and rewards drive people and organizations. Ecosystems leverage this difference to create win-win situations that incentivize everyone to participate, which fuels continued growth.
3. “Rule-breaking” — The ability of ecosystems to break or change rules ethically and legally helps them circumvent industry constraints and barriers. For example, Airbnb avoided the need to build and staff expensive hotels by having homeowners rent out their own properties.
4. “Magical synergies” — Ecosystems combine individual innovations into a powerful system, causing synergies between disparate parts to emerge and create new value and growth. For example, as the number of Airbnb listings grows, so does the number of new restaurants and attractions close to popular listings, thus boosting travel demand and increasing the number of Airbnb hosts.
5. “Adaptive flexibility” — Unlike conventional businesses with rigid rules, ecosystems easily adapt to new challenges by adding or subtracting blocks and connections.

The “innovation choreographer” focuses on building solutions, rewarding everyone, and adapting to uncertainty.

The innovation choreographer is an emerging role. Though essential, they lack recognition, as UX designers did in the early years of online business. Innovation choreographers connect people, organizations, and technologies to achieve a variety of sweeping goals, from business innovation to a global effort to eradicate malaria. They bring talented people together to turn ambitious visions into reality. Innovation choreographers are usually generalists who understand the big picture of a given challenge, cut across boundaries, strategically break the rules, solve problems adaptively, and tell stories that galvanize support.

“We deserve work worthy of our talent.”

Innovation choreographers focus on three main tasks:

• Building complete solutions — They arrange the Legos functionally by seeing the big picture of the ecosystem, understanding that connections — not individual components — create the most value, and ensuring that no key pieces are missing.
• Rewarding everyone — They give individuals and organizations tailored rewards that match their unique motivations to generate win-win outcomes that benefit everyone.
• Creatively adapting to uncertainty — They take creative action despite uncertainties, adapting what they learn from that action to manage risks and understanding that each action and adaptation influences their future choices.

“Set an ambitious goal that aligns actions.”

Commence ecosystem innovation by setting an ambitious goal that inspires a diverse range of individuals and organizations to work together. For example, in 1961, President John F. Kennedy set the goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of that decade. This aspiration inspired coordinated action from Congress, NASA scientists, and the American public, leading to Neil Armstrong setting foot on the lunar surface in 1969.

“Being able to shape the future also makes us responsible for the future we create.”

Once your ambitious goal is set, outline a clear and practical set of dos and don’ts so everyone involved adheres to the same ethical standards while innovating. A “do” might include respecting data privacy, while a “don’t” might be breaking the law. With guardrails in place, write a powerful story to support your goal. Tell stakeholders why action is necessary, what aims you seek to accomplish, why you’ll succeed, and why the goal is urgent. Ensure that respected leaders within your ecosystem tell this story repeatedly. 

Understand your current ecosystem’s challenges and opportunities.

Develop a comprehensive understanding of your current ecosystem by brainstorming with a wide range of people who operate within it. Using pen and paper or mapping software, create an “ecosystem map” to obtain a big-picture view. Write down your goal to know what to include and exclude in this map. Choose a stakeholder for whom you wish to create value, give them a symbol, and write their name above it. Expand the map outwards with arrows and icons, adding actors — people and organizations within the ecosystem; actions — what the actors do and why; connections — how the different actors connect; and gaps — missing pieces of information that surround the stakeholder.

“A big view of the current ecosystem — the area you care about — allows you to better explore the real-world messiness that underlies challenges.”

Analyze the connections you’ve mapped to comprehend the factors driving the challenge you seek to solve, and whether a single component is causing cascading effects. Seek out overlooked problems, assess if systemic failures require a complete overhaul, and determine if you should develop supportive ecosystems. Continue to refine and edit your ecosystem map.

Design your future ecosystem.

To craft a bold future vision, start by considering current trends, ideas from other fields, underutilized people and resources, innovative technology, and “unmet needs.” Map out the Lego blocks and connections of your future ecosystem, as you did with your current ecosystem. If your future vision is to create an ecosystem that supports electric vehicles (EVs), for example, include EV manufacturers, EV customers, and EV charging stations. Test your ecosystem for completeness by seeking out the components that might prevent it from working in the real world.

“Remember the trifecta — aim for something that is practical, ambitious, and creates significant value.”

Reward everyone in your future ecosystem. Learn about each group’s motivations and create value that aligns with those motivations.

Stretch your future ecosystem’s design. Add or remove parts of the system, as Dollar Shave Club did when it added mail delivery to its ecosystem to circumvent the cost of distribution in retail stores. Or, stretch your design by looking for win-wins and leveraging the power of feedback loops as Tesla did by offering an expensive sports car as its first product; Tesla invested earnings from sales of that car into developing a more affordable EV.

Plan to shift from your current to your future ecosystem.

After drawing your current and future ecosystem maps, plan how you can move from one to the other. Consider potential failures, uncertainties, and opportunities to uncover urgent challenges to changing the present ecosystem.

Design a portion of your future ecosystem and test it. For example, connect employees and technology to see how well they collaborate. When designing your portions, ensure they help you explore challenges and opportunities, build your future ecosystem bit-by-bit, and sustain forward momentum. When you encounter barriers, dance around them instead of stopping completely. Collaborate with those who can provide any missing parts or trim back the desired outcomes.

“How do you get from the way the world looks today to the ecosystem you want to create for the future?”

Plan out the portions that take you from your current ecosystem to the future ecosystem. Your goal is to provide a flexible, shareable road map. Tackle the challenging parts first so they don’t derail your efforts.

Persuade other individuals and organizations to act. Highlight how you’ll learn, deliver outcomes, and manage risks so you can build your ecosystem.

Create your future ecosystem.

Embrace the “act-learn-adapt cycle” to manage risks in an unpredictable world. Act by building or testing a “thin slice” of your future ecosystem in the real world. Analyze how well the thin slice worked to uncover problems and opportunities.

Build flexibility into your design so you can pivot or make changes. Use “modular blocks” that you can quickly assemble, reuse, and rearrange. For example, an onboarding template can be easily customized for different employees. Ensure the different parts connect easily, use data to simplify changes — for example, update your offerings on a website rather than printing out new brochures — and put off any choices that bind you until they’re absolutely necessary.

Measure your “success, progress, and performance.” Success is whether your ecosystem works well and creates value for all participants; progress measures how well you move through your thin slices; and performance considers whether your team is efficient and productive.