To tackle global and societal challenges like the SDG’s and Climate Change - we need collaborations at a scale beyond individual projects and organisations. We need to invest in building our portfolio capabilities - so that we can have scalable impact and work across the whole system for transformation. By orchestrating entire innovation ecosystems, we can bridge and create coherence between the adaptive and practical efforts that are at play. This session will focus on building an understanding of the capabilities and capacities that are needed in organisations to work in systems transformations. In the Innovation Ecosystems for Transformation session of the States of Change Learning Festival 2020, Mikael Seppälä from Sitra Lab spoke about Orchestrating Innovation Ecosystems (and Portfolios) for Transformation. https://festival.states-of-change.org/event/orchestrating-innovation

1. Orchestrating Innovation Ecosystems
(and Portfolios) for Transformation
@mikaelseppala #SitraLab

2. Facilitating the development of changemakers’ skills,
attitudes and opportunities to solve wicked
problems.

3. Innovation portfolio
network in Finland
▪ 20 organizations
▪ 2-day intl. workshop
▪ 4 workshops
▪ Experiments
▪ Publication in August

5. You can’t Google answers
to wicked problems
Multiple stakeholders Multiple scales & perspectivesChange

6. Degrees of Scale and Certainty
Complicated:
Building an airplane
Complex:
Recycling all the plastic
in a city
Technical:
Rolling out a new
application in an
organization
Adaptive:
Tackling marginalization
with a multidisciplinary
team
Certainty of
problems
& solutions
Uncertainty
of problems
& solutions
Broad scale
Narrow scale

7. Connecting problem types with organizing
T E C H N I C A L :
F O R T H E P E O P L E
A D A P T I V E :
W I T H T H E
P E O P L E
C O M P L E X :
B E T W E E N T H E
P E O P L E
Institutions
Leaders &
experts
Labs
Facilitators &
co-creators
Innovation Ecosystems
Orchestrators, weavers &
collaborators

8. Will labs grow up to become
innovation ecosystems?
Labs
Hubs + Networks
Collective Impact
Innovation
ecosystems
+ Co-creation:
Learning by doing together
+ Early collaboration:
Communication and activities
+ Establishing collaboration:
Common agenda, measurement, backbone organization
+ Mature collaboration:
Funding, portfolios, platforms, R&D&I, ecosystem capabilities

9. When do we need a portfolio approach?
Single point
solutions
Systems
Transformation
Building the Dark Matter
in between and over time
Multiple
interventions at
different levels of
the system
Magic bullet?
Picture: Ingrid Burkett/TACSI

10. Portfolio
Approach
Impact layer

11. -
Sensemaking
and feedback loops
We generate actionable
intelligence to accelerate
learning about how to
achieve transformation at
scale. Feedback loops
inform policymaking and
dynamic management of
innovation options.
Understand and map
the systems challenge
We engage demand-side
challenge owners – city
mayors, regional leaders,
government ministers and
CEOs of major companies – to
understand ambition and
needs, identify constraints and
secure intent for
transformational change.
Orchestrate
a portfolio
For each challenge, we build
and manage a portfolio of
30 – 100 connected
innovation projects,
designed to address
leverage points identified in
earlier stages.
Define the
intervention strategy
We identify where and how
innovation can play a role in
catalysing change dynamics,
and start to design relevant
innovation ‘positions’.
1
23
4
Our systems
innovation
methodology

12. Innovation (Portfolio) Ambition Matrix
Source: Deloitte

13. From organizational transformation to
ecosystem transformation
Picture: Observatory for Public Sector Innovation
Ecosystem transformation portfolios?
Core
Adjacent
Transformational

14. Comparison of Portfolio Types
Strategic Portfolio Management Innovation Portfolio Sensemaking &
Management
Purpose Executing strategy through programmes
and projects
Collaboration to foster transformation
OPSI Innovation Facets Enhancement-oriented & Adaptive
Innovation
Mission-oriented & Anticipatory Innovation
Problem type Technical (complicated, simple) Requires stakeholders to adapt in interaction
(complex)
Scope and scale Reducible and narrow Open and broad
Relationship to problems and
solutions
Problem and solutions can be defined Problem is identified and solutions are explored
Actors Team or organization Ecosystem (multiple organizations)
Projects as means Projects are planned means of executing
solutions
Projects are experimental means of learning
about and how to tackle the problem
Timespans Planning and budgeting define the
timespans
Achieving transformation defines the timespans

15. Levels of Innovation Portfolio Sensemaking &
Management
First
experiments
What could we do
to exhibit the value
of the approach?
+ Sensemaking
& Intelligence
Learning and
adapting over
projects
+ Portfolio
Composition
Choosing sets of
projects with
synergies
+ Portfolio
Design/Impact
Designing and
visualizing the
portfolio’s desired
impact
Embedded principles
Fully fledged
capability development
3-5 years

16. Sitra’s first steps: building a shared Theory of Change,
portfolio visualization and sensemaking practices to help
strengthen internal collaboration
Picture: Valdis Krebs

17. sitra.fi/en
@sitrafund