Radical innovation: crossing knowledge boundaries with ...

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5.8.3 Building capacity If the overall objective is to build ‘capacity’, rather than to achieve specific goals, we have to ask whether there is any form of accountability that escapes the critique of direct visibility. The changes required to build capacity are likely to be qualitative and attitudinal ones. Moreover, they are likely to be gradual, and to develop over a long time period (10 years or more). As a result, even those directly involved in change process are likely not to notice, or to forget what the situation had really been like at the outset. David Robson 37 advises that establishing a baseline, incorporating rich description rather than reductive measurement, would allow a basis for comparison through ‘critical incidents’. They would form the basis for longitudinal analysis, and narrative descriptions of how they have developed over time. The objective would be to monitor the development of insight, not metrication of outcomes. Quantitative measures are ‘helpful indicators but very dangerous targets’, because the real objective is not a quantitative one, whereas measures are very seductive substitute goals. It is important to encourage description rather than simply counting, because description brings richness of understanding where counting does not. 5.8.4 Individual performance With regard to evaluation of individual performance, the deployment of specific skills within an interdisciplinary enterprise can of course be assessed. These include the development of social networks, skills in the conduct of interdisciplinary processes such as workshops, and the construction of narratives and visual rhetorics, and effective work within matrix management contexts. Evidence of pole-star leadership attributes is of course extremely valuable, although it should not be assumed that the only essential participant in an interdisciplinary enterprise is the leader. We have commented above on the use of the word ‘discipline’ to mean rigour, taking care and doing things properly. It can certainly be true that interdisciplinary work is associated with being ‘undisciplined’ (Blackwell 2009), and perhaps there are researchers who are lazy, careless or ignorant and use the term ‘interdisciplinary’ as an excuse for those failings. Nevertheless, some of the attributes of rigour within a conventional disciplinary structure may be counterproductive to interdisciplinary innovation. Following established rules of conduct, and being skilled at the construction of explanations within conventional theoretical frameworks, are often taken as signs of rigour that may not be necessary or even appropriate in the contexts we describe. As an alternative standard for assessing the qualities of the innovative interdisciplinary researcher individual, one should take into account the many pieces of personal advice collected during our research that are compiled in the final appendix of this report. It is clear from that advice that, whereas successful disciplinary researchers often demonstrate a particular kind of focused and serious 37 Expert witness report Innovation and Interdisciplinarity 62
igour that can be assessed objectively using formal examination, research productivity measures and so on, the standards of personal ‘rigour’ for the successful interdisciplinary innovator on the other hand demand a far lighter touch, including humility, open-mindedness and playfulness, and above all the challenge of continuing to maintain and to be driven by genuine curiosity. Innovation and Interdisciplinarity 63
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Technical Report Number 760 Radical
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Radical innovation: crossing knowle
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1.2. Contents 1.1. Executive summar
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2. Introduction Innovation is not a
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2.1. Definitions Several readers of
Page 11 and 12: perhaps by exploiting emerging tech
Page 13 and 14: 3.1.1 A key enabler: the ‘pole-st
Page 15 and 16: ought together. � The collective
Page 17 and 18: these perceptions of lack of discip
Page 19 and 20: ecause they reconfigure existing ma
Page 21 and 22: develop and deliver based on the te
Page 23 and 24: problems of society are complex - a
Page 25 and 26: analytic consistency. Although not
Page 27 and 28: expertise might be better utilised.
Page 29 and 30: intellectual approaches. It is not
Page 31 and 32: The need for and management of inte
Page 33 and 34: different language). Rather, they h
Page 35 and 36: 4. Wedding Creativity and Knowledge
Page 37 and 38: literature (e.g. Klein 1996, Latucc
Page 39 and 40: our project, if it were possible to
Page 41 and 42: transmitted to it’, through ‘cr
Page 43 and 44: e seen as invalid because of the fa
Page 45 and 46: period of time, both because it is
Page 47 and 48: where I do not know and like my nei
Page 49 and 50: interdisciplinary projects. It is a
Page 51 and 52: developed to stimulate creativity w
Page 53 and 54: the work of artists (or perhaps pri
Page 55 and 56: ideological advances. Many projects
Page 57 and 58: designers. Peter Guthrie 32 and the
Page 59 and 60: own right, and its ethical foundati
Page 61: is conventionally assessed in terms
Page 65 and 66: obliquely or in passing as their
Page 67 and 68: the people who ‘identify the obvi
Page 69 and 70: order to obtain funding and employm
Page 71 and 72: 7. Obstacles to interdisciplinary i
Page 73 and 74: advancement within the elite hierar
Page 75 and 76: New fields of study often arise in
Page 77 and 78: Metrication would not be necessary
Page 79 and 80: kinds of knowledge led to negotiati
Page 81 and 82: 8. Innovation policy - policy for i
Page 83 and 84: impact. Extrinsic impact involves s
Page 85 and 86: One important role for the public p
Page 87 and 88: 9. Contributors and Acknowledgement
Page 89 and 90: 10. Bibliography Adams, J., Jackson
Page 91 and 92: Hallam, E. and Ingold, T. (eds.) (2
Page 93 and 94: Merton, P., and E. Barber. (2004).
Page 95 and 96: Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of p
Page 97 and 98: are expected to be meaningful to th
Page 99 and 100: disciplinary theory bases or termin
Page 101 and 102: argued that the well-developed SET
Page 103 and 104: these disciplines to a subsidiary o
Page 105 and 106: In a later article on the subject N
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Page 109 and 110: innovation might take in practice t
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interdisciplinarity as presented to
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14. Appendix D: Advice on how to do
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technical innovation � utilize ex
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� need not have a clear business
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� successful researchers have spa
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� use visualisation and visual st
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