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It used to feel like we were loosing the battle against the climate crisis. We had to find a better way to collaborate, to overcome wicked problems. Now, celebrating our two year anniversary, Ideaonomy is joining the dots across complex innovation ecosystems, linking people across sectors so they can collaborate at speed and at scale. Helping people solve problems together rather than on their own. How did we get here? I’d spent a few years in the UK Government’s innovation agency, designing and running a £450m innovation fund and working with other funders across government, regulation and the private sector. Back then, the innovation agency often felt like something out of the 70’s: lots of projects, meetings, workshops, white board pens, sticky notes and calls. It felt like taking a spoon to a gun fight, we were ill equipped. In October 2022, in one 4am brainwave, the solution to the problem that I’d been wrestling with for years (innovation being inefficient), finally revealed itself. Many years before, I had fallen in love with forests, and had been lucky enough to plant and watch a new forest grow from an empty field. I couldn’t help comparing the forest ecosystem to the research and innovation ecosystem. One was perfect, the other clunky. I recognised that the forest had the answer, but we needed to manage the complexity. High growth ecosystems need not just above ground conditions to succeed, it’s what happens beneath the ground that really counts. If we had the courage to be bold enough, we could build a human led, AI-supported, digital mycelial network. With some hugely impressive colleagues in James, Paul, Paul and Alison amongst many others, we've built a powerful new tool in the battle against some of the world's biggest challenges: from managing natural resources to tackling climate change. A new way to collaborate, which in turn brings a new sense of hope. Working like nature to protect humanity. #innovation #leadership #worklikenature #ideaonomy

The inefficiency of the UK research and innovation ecosystem is the shadow stunting economic growth and productivity. Whether you’re a government department, regulator, corporate, academic or investor, it's hard to drive growth from the darkness of tradition. But there is a better way to create the ideal economy. This is why we started Ideaonomy. Modelled on mycelial networks, Ideaonomy joins the dots across complex systems to drive high scale, high speed, collaborative problem solving. 1. We engage the masses to identify, articulate, and prioritise problems in minutes 2. We support collaboration over duplication 3. We help people solve unsolved problems and avoid reinvention So why did we do it? In the UK research and innovation ecosystem, there is no connective tissue. There are a lot of smart people doing great work, but the overall system is slow, siloed, disconnected and inefficient. Here’s why: 💡 The problem is the problem: We don’t understand or prioritise all the problems that need to be solved. ‘Challenge’ and ‘mission’ led research and innovation often lead to a collection of individual projects, rather than problems being solved at speed and scale. Traditional methods of challenge identification and prioritisation are slow and often heavily prone to bias across a small selection of experts who decide where millions get allocated. 💡 Siloed duplication: Whether it's academics working on the same research area without knowing it, separate government departments trying to solve the same problems, or start-ups being funded to develop similar things, there is a lot of duplication. People are working on the same problems as others without knowing it. 💡Uncontrolled reinvention: Siloed thinking and doing, leads to reinventing the wheel. This creates competition in shallow value pools and increases failure rates. We should be innovating in the white space, where problems do not already have solutions. Research and innovation should be the primary engines of growth in any economy. Like a mycelial network in a forest ecosystem, they should support a healthy root system, and provide strong foundations. You can’t achieve growth without it. By working like nature, we can turn around the UK economy. #innovation #growth #producitivty #happiness #leadership #research #ideaonomy #worklikenature

💡What type of innovator are you?💡 Role #1 - The Spotter Too often people think they're not innovative because they're not creative, so here's 12 types of innovator to empower the entire organisation in the innovation process. Einstein said: “If I had an hour to save the world, I’d spend 55 minutes defining the problem and 5 minutes on the solution.” In nature, forest mycorrhizal networks spot problems like nutrient deficiency in real time, redistributing nutrients accordingly. This is how organisations should work too. In line with this First Principles thinking, The Spotter focuses on the identification, articulation and prioritisation of problems and their sub-problems. They are highly tuned individuals. They view problems as opportunities. They see around corners, challenge assumptions and foster a culture humble enough to admit that everything can be improved. Contrary to popular belief, the worst place to start innovation is with an idea. That is how organisations end up with a portfolio of disconnected projects that often struggle to deliver consistent impact. The problem is not a lack of ideas, but poorly understood and prioritised problems. Having worked across charities, corporates, government and regulators, cultures that encourage and embrace problem identification, articulation and prioritisation outperform those that chase ideas. Effective Spotters often make the difference between success and failure. – Whether in government, regulation, business or academia, innovation cannot be confined to a single team or department. It must become part of the organisational fabric. Everyone has a role to play, even if they don’t yet realise it. When done properly, innovation is a team sport involving the entire organisation. Each week we will explore one of these 12 types. Follow along to discover which type of innovator you are, and how to build all 12 into your organisation. #FirstPrinciples #Innovation #Leadership #Ideaonomy #Worklikenature #Futureofwork

"In a short amount of time, it gave a large group of stakeholders an equal and accessible way to share their views, which helped us collectively determine our research priorities.” Ideaonomy connects people, problems and solutions across sectors to tackle the world’s toughest challenges. Sign up now to lead the future of work.

What’s holding UK innovation back? Silos, slow processes and duplicated effort make us less efficient and productive. Ideaonomy helps gamechanging organisations to join the dots with a new way of solving problems together. Sign up now for your free demo.

Nature doesn't work in silos. Neither should you. It’s time to rethink how we collaborate, across industries, at speed, for global good. Ready to unlock cross-sector solutions? Sign up to Ideaonomy.