Innovation: Closer means closer!

"Animal lovers in the tech world have decided 'It's time to let technology bring us closer to our pets." What do they mean by "closer"? For example, keeping your dog actively engaged in an activity it loves (iFetch); monitoring its activity, like a Fitbit for dogs (Whistle); and staying connected with your dog via an intercom and treat dispenser (Petzi Connect). "Closer" to your pets presumably means you use such technology only when you have to be away, such as at work, on vacation, or perhaps on an errand. Which means that iFetch etc are only interim technology solutions and that otherwise "closer" means you're actually spending time with your pets.
 

Innovation: Multidisciplinary Outlook + Collaboration

Ekateryna Nova talks about how the current education system fails to reflect new research on what fosters innovation and creativity in schools. According to Nova, scientific and technological advances are driven by people with a broad range of interests – like biologists that study history or engineers that study art.* However, while working on a project linking innovation economics with British Columbia’s attitudes towards multidisciplinary studies, Nova found that the current system actually hindered collaboration between disciplines rather than promote it. In her TEDx talk, Nova talks about how this attitude is not only damaging the potential for innovation, but also works in contrast to career projections of modern times – where an individual is expected to switch careers up to seven times in their life time.

*Multidisciplinary outlook + consideration + collaboration is fundamentally what I propose in The Tripartite Model.
 

Innovation: Working Ecology + People Connecting

Innovation entails integrating technologies and other knowledge into a whole product, a whole technology platform, a whole business, a whole company and a whole ecology of enterprises. Innovation management focuses on the linkages and synergies among people, work units, knowledge systems, alliance partners, and inter-organizational associations that are necessary to create streams of new products and services. Innovation management is about creating and managing all these links. Tear down those silos.

First, CEOs must see the big picture, that is, of innovation as a system, and they must appreciate the value and importance of such an ecology. They assume the standard bearer for purpose: What is it that the company wants or needs to accomplish, and what are the reasons driving such want or need. Then, it's about their people talking with one another, forging relationships within and across functions, working through disagreements constructively, and collaborating in earnest to fulfill a shared purpose.

I argue that the foregoing is the crucial foundation for innovation, which underlie and enable Deborah Dougherty's innovation management model. In short, product, capability, business and strategy development, and integrating it all, require such basics as people talking, relating, and working together.

It may be easy for CEOs and their staff, consultants or professors to say, of course, these people matters are a given. However, CEOs et al. may be too quick to forge ahead with a model, process or toolkit, and essentially take these people matters for granted. But unless these matters are checked, worked through, and ensured, any model, process or toolkit is bound to fail.

 

USC Center: Philanthropy + Education Reform

This is a special presentation of the event, given to the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy Faculty.

Sarah Reckhow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University. Her research and teaching interests include urban politics, education policy, nonprofits and philanthropy, and racial and ethnic politics. Reckhow's work on urban schools has focused on policy reforms in New York City, Los Angeles, and Oakland. Her book, Follow the Money: How Foundation Dollars Change Public School Politics, examines the role of major foundations, such as the Gates Foundation, in urban school reform. Reckhow has also studied the role of philanthropy in developing metropolitan social safety nets in Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, and Denver. This research was published in a report from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. She has recently published articles in Urban Affairs Review, Policy Studies Journal, and Planning Theory. Reckhow is affiliated with theGlobal Urban Studies Program at MSU, and she is a member of the MacArthur Foundation research network: Building Resilient Regions. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009. Prior to attending graduate school, Reckhow was a high school teacher in the Baltimore City Public Schools.

USC Center: Philanthropy + Global Health

The USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy Conversations on Philanthropy series:

Philanthropy and Global Health

Featuring:

Barbara Bush
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Global Health Corps

Cara Esposito
Executive Director
Leonetti/O'Connell Family Foundation

Esther Wachtell
Founding Member, Board of Advisors
The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy

James M. Ferris
Director
The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy

Barbara Bush is CEO and co-founder of Global Health Corps. Before joining GHC, Barbara worked in Educational Programming at the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, where she supported design thinking programs for high school students and faculty across the US. She has worked for Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Capetown, South Africa and interned for UNICEF in Botswana. She has traveled with the UN World Food Programme, focusing on the importance of nutrition. Barbara is a member of UNICEF’s Next Generation Steering Committee, and is on the Board of Directors of Covenant House International, PSI, Friends of the Global Fight for AIDS, TB, and Malaria, and the UN’s Social Entrepreneurship Council. She is a Draper Richards Foundation Social Entrepreneur, a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper, and a fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation. Barbara was named one of Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year in 2011 and one of Newsweek’s Women of Impact in 2013. Barbara Bush graduated from Yale University with a degree in Humanities in 2004.

The Center recently introduced the Conversations on Philanthropy series as a means to bring together different decision makers from philanthropy – foundation leaders, individual donors, and family foundation trustees – along with experts in a field to discuss a specific issue of keen interest to the philanthropic community. These Los Angeles based discussions are aimed at bringing together different segments of philanthropy in an attempt to bridge fragmentation within the sector and leverage the power of the sector’s pluralism.

USC Center: Philanthropy + Public Policy

Mission

The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy promotes more effective philanthropy and strengthens the nonprofit sector through research that informs philanthropic decision-making and public policy to advance community problem solving.

An Engaged Research Center

Since its inception in 2000, The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy has emphasized research and analysis as a means to deepening the understanding of complex issues in philanthropy and to ensuring important topics are addressed by the field. By conducting groundbreaking studies and widely sharing the findings, the Center provides in-depth knowledge of philanthropy’s changing landscape as well as strategies for action. This empowers philanthropic decision-makers, policymakers, and civic leaders with the information and insights needed to create meaningful change, both independently and collectively.

The Center benefits from its vantage point on the West Coast, where philanthropy continues to grow faster than in the rest of the country and where new models and forms of giving are emerging. As an integral part of the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, the Center draws upon the University’s intellectual assets – its interdisciplinary strengths, its commitment to linking theory with practice, and its community involvement – to develop innovative approaches to complex societal challenges. The Center plays an instrumental role in the School’s focus on governance and public problem solving, in the process bolstering philanthropy’s influence and impact in the region, nationally, and worldwide.

Advancing the Field of Philanthropy

From its studies on new philanthropists and California foundations to its analysis of foundation strategies for public policy engagement, the Center’s research is rigorous, relevant, and accessible.

To advance the field of philanthropy, the Center’s enduring intellectual agenda focuses on three principal areas:

The Changing Landscape of Philanthropy: The Center examines the motivations and strategies for philanthropic behavior; new structures for philanthropic activity; and the impact of emerging trends on philanthropy, nonprofits, and the communities they serve.

Philanthropic Strategies for Public Problem Solving: The Center studies ways that philanthropists and philanthropic institutions are becoming more strategic in their efforts to problem solve by influencing public policy and by working together and in partnership with government and business.

Philanthropic Stewardship and Leadership: The Center explores issues of accountability and stewardship in philanthropy as well as public policies that shape and influence philanthropic decision-making.

Convening Leaders to Inform and Inspire

The Center is the premier venue for high-level discourse on philanthropy in southern California, bringing philanthropically minded individuals together to share experiences, to learn from each other, and to inspire one another to greater heights. By promoting a dialogue about philanthropy’s role in public problem solving and by helping to establish networks among those working to improve our communities, the Center is providing philanthropic leaders with the knowledge and insights to think differently about how best to effect meaningful, lasting change for institutions and individuals across the region and beyond.

Distinguished Speakers Series: The Center’s hallmark Distinguished Speakers Series enables leaders from different vantage points – philanthropists, foundation executives, and policymakers – to share their views on philanthropy and public policy, stimulating conversation about emerging trends in philanthropy and their public policy implications.

Forums and Roundtables: The Center organizes national forums to bring together prominent thought leaders, researchers, and decision makers for in-depth analysis of the varied dimensions of philanthropy, as well as emerging trends and prospects. The Center also holds smaller roundtable discussions with renowned experts on key issues in the field, based on commissioned papers and research reports.

Conversations on Philanthropy: The Center has initiated a series that brings together the various segments of philanthropy – foundation executives, family foundation trustees, and individual donors – along with noted experts to discuss issues of keen interest such as the arts, children and youth, and the environment.

Leadership Exchanges: The Center provides intimate settings where like-minded individuals – from CEOs of L.A.’s largest foundations to groups of new donors who are developing strategies for greater impact – can meet with their peers to discuss critical challenges they face in their philanthropic work.

Shaping the Future

In its remarkable short history, the Center has set a new standard in cutting-edge scholarship that explores the nexus of philanthropy and public policy and informs nonprofit, business, and government leaders as they seek to address the myriad of challenges facing diverse communities. Building on its expertise, the Center also educates the next generation of sector leaders by infusing its work in the School’s nationally ranked educational programs in philanthropy and nonprofit management.

Working with its partners, The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy will continue to pioneer the future of philanthropy. As we move forward,we aim to heighten philanthropy’s impact by expanding its knowledge base and translating research findings into practice; by overcoming fragmentation in the field to leverage many voices; and by forging stronger connections and deeper relationships that transcend the nonprofit sector.

Through its research and commitment to driving the conversation around these issues, the Center will help to transform philanthropy in its scope, reach, and impact, making a crucial difference in the quality of life in communities everywhere.

Reference: The Center on Philanthropy & Public Policy.

I scanned the Forbes channel on YouTube for videos on philanthropy, which I can write about in this blog.  But only two suited my interests, so I kept searching.  I stumbled upon the USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.  The Core Algorithm, first and foremost, works off of a solid conceptual framework - Theory of Algorithms.  As a practical applications model of that framework, The Core Algorithm emphasizes gathering together and conversing; weighing key issues, problems or challenges and agreeing on ends in mind; creating the roadmap for truly reaching these ends; and taking concerted, effective action to reach these ends.

What I highlighted in the foregoing remarks give me reason to be very excited about this Center.  Other than my more holistic approach to understanding weighty issues that concern people across the world - that is, the Tripartite Model that draws not just on science but also on art and religion - the Center's charter resonates quite well with The Core Algorithm and Theory of Algorithm.  I look forward to knowing more about their efforts and perhaps to collaborating in these efforts.