The Innovators Network

We designed the N Square Innovators Network around the premise that nuclear weapons constitute the quintessential “wicked problem”—that is, a complex of different problem types, from disputes to puzzles to dilemmas, all of which require multidisciplinary approaches.

Since Horst Rittel and his colleagues at UC Berkeley first established wicked problem theory in 1972,4 practitioners have observed that novel solutions are more likely in environments that harness cognitive diversity, which we define as a combination of diverse heuristics (rules, tricks, and shortcuts, often unconscious, for problem-solving) and diverse mental models (ways we model the world around us to make sense of it). Because cognitive diversity reflects and is influenced by other forms of diversity— gender, culture, ethnicity, age, geography—we believed that we needed to cultivate heterogeneous professional networks to make progress on nuclear challenges. In her book Politics and the Bomb, Sara Kutchesfahani (until recently a member of the N Square team) makes similar observations about the historic role of diverse epistemic communities in the creation of nuclear nonproliferation agreements, noting that “epistemic communities [become] more active and institutionalized…during times of uncertainty.”5

In designing the Innovators Network, we drew on ENGAGE, a body of work developed for the Rockefeller Foundation by the Monitor Institute, widely considered to be a leader in the cultivation of social impact networks. The resulting model (see network lifecycle diagram) has informed the design and facilitation of the Innovators Network ever since.

Since its inception, the network has offered a new kind of “home” for nuclear professionals eager to partner with creatives, with experts from other fields, and with one another to gain practice in designing innovative solutions to pressing nuclear risk challenges. It also offers experts in other fields an onramp to involvement in the design of these solutions and the nuclear issue space more generally.

The Innovators Network fellows themselves are a vibrant cross-sector group of technologists, game designers, policy experts, diplomats, Hollywood filmmakers, and others tackling nuclear challenges together in new ways. To date, there have been six cohorts of Innovators Network fellows. Each cohort spends roughly nine months learning and practicing the methods of creative, collaborative design, ultimately producing an implementable set of projects that address real-world needs in the nuclear field. Most fellows actively engage as alumni once their fellowships are complete.

The Innovators Network is significantly more diverse professionally, ethnically, geographically, cognitively, and in terms of gender than any other similar initiative we are aware of in this space. While the majority come from the United States, nearly four dozen fellows hail from Great Britain, a dozen from other European countries, and a handful from Nigeria and Brazil. Others come from Mexico, Turkey, Cyprus, Cameroon, Australia, India, and Pakistan. While their projects vary widely, all innovation fellows learn and follow the same innovation process and the “innovation mindsets” that support it.

The Innovation Process

The innovation process begins with an imaginative leap—a novel set of associations—but is based on a reliable series of steps.

Discover

The Discover phase of the process invites participants to learn about the ways that similar challenges are solved, to get inspiration from inside and outside the field, and to practice a user-centered approach to solving problems of practice.

Define

The Define phase of the process translates insights gathered from the discovery exercises to define, refine, and make meaning of the challenge. This section relies on intuitive, empathic principles and the collective genius of the group.

Do

The Do phase of the process asks teams to “work in a different way” by brainstorming and prototyping solutions. Teams will create an expression of their best current thinking and test that out through user testing and other critical feedback.

Developed jointly by the N Square team and The Nucleus Group

Cohorts 1, 2, 3

Each of our first three cohorts of Innovators Network fellows organized themselves into smaller teams to address real-world nuclear challenges that would benefit from fresh thinking. Using the innovation process (see diagram) as their guide, each group developed a large set of promising ideas before converging on, then prototyping, specific solutions. While the focus has varied from team to team and cohort to cohort, new fellows have had the opportunity to learn from, integrate, or refine concepts generated by earlier cohorts.

Cohort 1 Themes

• Expanding: How might we engage new people, facilitate new partnerships, and enable the development, integration, and adoption of new ideas and approaches related to nuclear threat reduction?

• Reporting/Monitoring/Warning: How might we identify, track, and understand developments that pose a threat to humanity?

• Verification: How might we better articulate the problems and opportunities in the nuclear verification space so that people without expertise understand the issues and feel empowered to contribute?

• Visibility: How might we use cultural pressure and social influence to spark innovation and create policy changes that reduce or eliminate nuclear danger?

Cohort 2 Themes

• Learning & Human Factors: How do we connect educators and individuals interested in learning about nuclear threats to active experiences, simulations, and other unique resources related to the topic?

• Art, Science & Nuclear Threat: How might we foster the development of artistic work with lasting impact on this issue?

• Creating Personal Participation: How might we shift attitudes about weapons from being essential for safety to being detrimental to survival?

• Narrative Building, Sensemaking& Disinformation: How might we guard against susceptibility to various forms of disinformation and misleading narratives?

Cohort 3 Themes

• Connect the Dots: How might we create new platforms that educate and engage new audiences on the topic of our nuclear reality?

• Tell the Story: How might sharing nuclear stories through multiple lenses and mediums create new knowledge and understanding?

• Do Something About It: How might exploring new forms of action around nuclear and other intersectional issues unlock opportunities to bolster engagement?

Cohorts 4, 5, 6

By popular demand, Cohort 4 was composed almost entirely of leaders and staff members from nuclear field NGOs eager to improve the culture and structures of work, to value new and different types of professional and cultural competency, to practice excellent leadership, and to act as a more cooperative system. The Cohort 4 fellows worked in teams to create prototypes that addressed challenges internal to the nuclear field that they believed stood in the way of collaboration and innovation.

Cohort 5 was an “accelerator” program designed to further advance nearly a dozen of the most promising concepts to come out of the first four cohorts. With support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, N Square provided both financial and technical support for these fledgling Innovators Network projects.

The most recent cohort, Cohort 6, is considering nuclear weapons as an artifact of the Anthropocene, posing questions about how we will manage life on Earth 70 years in the future—and what the successful, lasting elimination of nuclear weapons would mean in a world in which we face other interconnected existential threats.

With each successive cohort of fellows, we are deliberately knitting a professional and social network that encourages participants to challenge conventional wisdom and to reach across the invisible but numerous boundaries that tend to divide them. We’ve watched as our members form deep, long-lasting relationships by working together on real-world challenges, drawing on proven design and innovation models to develop creative, fresh solutions.