APPAM 2014 Innovative Perspectives on Global Challenges through LAUNCH Collective Genius

Innova&ve Perspec&ves on Global Challenges

through the LAUNCH Collec&ve Genius

Beth Beck Virginia Tech PhD Student

NASA Open Innova;on Program Manager h>p://about.me/bethbeck

Associa;on for Public Policy Analysis & Management 2014 Fall Research Conference

“Those studying chao%c dynamics discovered that the disorderly behavior of simple systems acted as a crea%ve process. It generated complexity: richly organized pa;erns, some=mes stable and some=mes unstable, some=mes finite and some=mes infinite, but always with the fascina=on of

living things.” – James Gleick


NASA Open Innova;on Program Manager

Innova;ve Perspec;ves on Global Challenges through the LAUNCH Collec;ve Genius

APPAM 2014 Fall Research Conference

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✓The world, as we know it, is con;nually transformed by rapid shi<s in technology, dwindling natural resources, and ever-‐fluctua&ng human dynamics. ✓Change is the only constant we know. Reality of dwindling natural resources and uncertainty of our global climate force us to face limits. ✓Limits disrupt our status quo, which triggers a need for reflexive thinking.





Global Reali&es

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✓The space program has given us a galac&c perspec&ve of our home planet from the outside in. ✓Earth’s fragile ecosystem is protected from the extremely hos&le environment of space by a thin blue line of atmosphere. ✓No other planet can sustain human life – at least one that we can travel to with exis;ng space transporta;on capabili;es.





Galac&c Perspec&ve

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With no other viable alterna;ves for a host planet to support 7 billion (and coun;ng) humans, we must:

✓embrace our limits, ✓create innova;ve ways to leverage what we have, and ✓learn to care for the planet that sustains us.

We need to apply new perspec&ves, new behaviors, and new choices to the challenge facing humans who occupy Earth and future habita;on of other life-‐sustaining planets in the future. NASA’s solu&on: LAUNCH Collec&ve Genius for a BeMer World





Call to Ac&on

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✓A non-‐tradi;onal public-‐private partnership between NASA, USAID, State Department, and Nike to search for and iden&fy transforma&ve solu&ons to sustainability challenges facing humanity. ✓A collabora&ve testbed for innova;ve thinking, as we solicit collaborators from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and exper;se. ✓A fluid, evolving, co-‐crea&on of new ways of knowing through a collabora;ve community of prac;ce – a case of new knowledge-‐crea%on through complex collabora&on.





What is LAUNCH?

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LAUNCH is comprised of: ✓Founding partners, NASA, USAID, State, and Nike; ✓LAUNCH Council members and their suppor;ng organiza;ons;

✓LAUNCH Innovators; and ✓Accelerator organiza;ons that mentor, advise, incubate, and invest in the innovators.

LAUNCH sustainability selec;on cycles:

✓Water ✓Health ✓Energy





LAUNCH Collec&ve Genius

✓Beyond Waste ✓Materials ✓Green Chemistry

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Biofashionista Suzanne Lee created sustainable fabric using cellulose-‐based biomaterial grown from fermented green tea, yeast, and bacteria. h>p://www.launch.org/innovators/suzanne-‐lee. Aydogan Ozcan of LUCAS devised a miniature microscope cell phone capability to detect bacteria and parasites remote areas without medical capabili;es. h>p://www.launch.org/innovators/aydogan-‐ozcan. Tara Sutherland and her team at Honey Bee Silks developed a biosynthe;c silk. h>p://www.launch.org/innovators/tara-‐sutherland. Joseph Atnafu of Sanergy created an innova;ve small business model for efficient sanita;on facili;es in the slums of Kenya. h>p://www.launch.org/innovators/joseph-‐atnafu.

Sample of LAUNCH Innovators

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Lisa Dyson of Kiverdi created a bioprocess that uses waste biomass as feedstock for chemical processing h>p://www.launch.org/innovators/lisa-‐dyson. Ramesh Raskar of Netra created eye exams using a small, portable device. h>p://www.launch.org/innovators/ramesh-‐raskar. Sam Harrington of Ecova&ve Design grew mushrooms in his dorm room to create biodegradable materials to replace plas;cs. h>p://www.launch.org/innovators/sam-‐harrington. Rana Gupta of Geckskin developed an a>achment device that uses biomimicry to replicate a nature-‐based Gecko release method. h>p://www.launch.org/innovators/rana-‐gupta.

Sample of LAUNCH Innovators

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✓The complex collabora&ve prac&ce of LAUNCH provides a unique empirical lens to look at collabora&ve communi&es of prac&ce. ✓Original LAUNCH tagline, Accelera%ng Innova%on for a Sustainable Future, evolved into the Collec%ve Genius for a BeJer World. ✓LAUNCH is an adap&ve ecosystem of collec&ve behavior that serves as an incubator for new and unexpected ways of doing of thinking – i.e. emergent knowledge.





The Case of LAUNCH

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In the prac&ce of LAUNCH, we iden;fied: ✓innova&ve technological solu&ons to global sustainability issues,

✓new ways of doing business within the federal government, and ✓new innova&on plaTorms for problem-‐solving.

We experienced the human reality of instability, uncertainty, and disrup&on through intensely emo&onal delibera&ons, YET these interac;ons yielded “reconstruc&ve knowledge” through the “dialogic nature of inquiry within the group” (Raskin and Bernstein 1987: 279). We discovered that the world of innova&on is always in the making.

LAUNCH Collec&ve Prac&ce

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The chaos of human collabora&on

provides a fer&le breeding ground

for innova&ve thinking and new knowledge crea&on

that can be applied to complex global challenges.





What I learned from LAUNCH?

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✓Innova&ve knowledge-‐crea&on through collabora&ve chaos: an endless cycle of mutually interac;ve processes that create new outcomes, new prac;ces, new rela;onships, and new ways to approach rela;onships, prac;ces, and outcomes. ✓Collabora&ve prac&ce (Nicolini, Gheranrdi, and Yanow 2003): chao;c, turbulent, disrup;ve, uncertain, and destabilizing – inci;ng crea&ve abrasion (Leonard-‐Barton 1995). ✓Crea&ve abrasion generates abduc&ve reasoning (Reichertz 2010, Mar;n 2007) from which new knowledge, in the form of innova;on, emerges. ✓Knowledge alchemy: the crea&ve transforma&on of ideas into novel ways to view the world.





Research defini&ons

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The prac&ce of knowledge alchemy mirrors Kant’s descrip;on of human thought: “not just the idea of the idea,

it is also the con%nuous process of rela%ng ideas to ideas, of finding contradic%ons and restoring uni%es, an endless process of crea%ng and ordering the products of the mind” ( Albrow, Mar;n 1990: 116).

Knowledge alchemy

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The chaos of collabora&on is our key to crea;ng the knowledge alchemy with which we can solve complex challenges caused by 7 billion humans inhabi;ng planet

Earth.

We have much work to do.

Let’s collaborate!

Find out more about LAUNCH: h>p://www.launch.org

What’s Next?

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Sources: Albrow, Mar;n. Max Weber's Construc=on of Social Theory. New York, NY: St. Mar;n's Press, 1990: 116. Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2008: 43. Leonard-‐Barton, Dorothy. Well Springs of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innova=on. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1995. Mar;n, Roger. The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win through Integra=ve Thinking. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2007. Nicolini, Davide, Silvia Gheranrdi, and Dvora Yanow. Knowing in Organiza=ons: A Prac=ce-‐Based Approach. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2003. Raskin, Marcus G., and Herbert J. Bernstein. New Ways of Knowing: The Sciences, Society, and Reconstruc=ve Knowledge Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Li>lefield, 1987: 279. The Sage Handbook of Grounded Theory, edited by Antony Bryant and Kathy Charmaz, 214-‐28. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publica;on, 2010. Weber, Edward P., and Anne M. Khademian. "Wicked Problems, Knowledge Challenges, and Collabora;ve Capacity Builders in Network Sepngs." Public Administra=on Review, no. March/April 2008.





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Government & Nonprofit

APPAM 2014 Innovative Perspectives on Global Challenges through LAUNCH Collective Genius