Innovation Mindsets

Iterate

Innovation operates through rapid cycles of creating, testing, learning, refining, and restarting. These iterations progress our efforts toward a better solution to the challenge at hand. Iterations move us toward a solution, though not in a straight line.

Divergence-Convergence

The process of innovation involves periods of divergence when it is best to gather a lot of different inputs and explore different options, and periods of convergence when editing and curating those inputs is important. This rhythm of divergence and convergence is a feature of iterative cycles. As the process of progressive approximation gets close to a proposed solution, divergence becomes minimal and convergence predominates.

Altitudes

When working collaboratively, it is important to ensure that we are talking, thinking, and working at the same “altitudes.” At different points in the process we may need to consider the meta level—thinking about systemic issues at the 100,000-foot view; the macro level—thinking about sub-systems at the 10,000-foot view; or the micro level—on-theground details at the 1-foot view. In this project, meta may pertain to a worldview or the meaning of nuclear threat and trends in our national conversations; macro may pertain to the fields of nuclear materials or weapons in general; and micro to individual sites or the needs of specific groups and individuals in that space.

Progressive Approximation

Since the innovation process occurs in short sprints, it encourages experimental trials that may not always work out. Prototyping is a good way to work when we do not start with the answer in hand. Because the world is dynamic and needs change over time, we also acknowledge that we can never create a fixed, perfect solution. Overall the innovation process is one of progressive approximation—getting closer and closer to a great solution, in a spirit of continuous improvement and tinkering.

Embrace Failure— Fail Forward, Learn Fast

In this process, we aim to learn about the ways in which our developing ideas are not working, so that we can change course before too much time and other resources have been invested. Finding out what’s not working is necessary failure—without it we won’t learn what will work best. Learning from failure is immediately fed forward into the next iteration of the solution.

Diversity

Our work will be done in a small team of diverse perspectives. Ideally, each team member holds a different role so your team is made up of diverse and complementary perspectives. This process benefits from everyone’s creativity, not just those who hold “design” positions. Everyone working on a team is familiar with the challenges facing us in nuclear threat reduction, and therefore we are all capable of thinking about causes and designing solutions.