Practice-based innovation and ageing

Professor Helinä MelkasLappeenranta University of TechnologyLahti School of Innovationhelina.melkas@lut.fi

10 September 2013Japanese-Finnish seminar: Ageing…Lahti, Finland

Innovation concepts

Innovativeness = a way of doing things that is both spontaneous, imaginative and systematic Innovating – implementing this way of doing thingsInnovation – both a process and an end resultInnovation activities – an ambiguous concept that focuses on many levels

Innovations are new ideas taken into practice

Combining information, knowledge and expertise in novel waysMany different types: product, process, organisational, social, system, service… innovationsThey are often developed complex, interactive and continuous processes; they are not single eventsThey are not a marginal phenomenon but part of everyone’s life

Origins of innovations

Science-basedScience, technology, innovation (STI model)

Practice-based (a majority)Doing, using, interacting (DUI model) Crucial in user-driven and employee-driven innovation

Source of the picture: publicpolicy.telefonica.com

• Complement each other• Both are needed

But…• Expertise is different• Tools and methods are different• Evaluation and measurement are different• Big challenges for innovation activities and policy

Science- and practice-based innovations

Different kinds of innovation processes

Lester & Piore, 2004

ANALYTICAL INTERPRETATIVE

• The focus is a project, with a well-defined beginning and end

• The thrust is to solve pre-defined problems

• Managers set goals• Managers convene meetings and

negotiate to resolve different viewpoints and eliminate ambiguity

• Communication is the precise exchange of pieces of information

• An employee and/or a customer is “an object” of actions

• The focus is a process, which is ongoing and open-ended

• The thrust is to discover new meanings and make things visible

• Managers set directions• Managers invite conversations and

translate to encourage different viewpoints and explore ambiguity

• Communication is fluid, context-dependent, undetermined

• “Possible worlds” are discovered and built in collaboration

• Employees and/or customers are active, creative actors who create meaning together

Practice-based innovation is interactionbetween people

A sense of safety is needed; courage to try out, be surprised and make mistakesA joint “construction site”:

What kinds of roles and tasks are needed in the different phases of innovation processes? What kinds of people and competences are needed in the different phases of innovation processes?How are people encouraged and inspired? How are individuals, teams and networks managed? How are people made to participate? How are opportunities for participation created?

New opportunities in practice-based innovation activities- In traditional science-based innovation activities the role

of universities was underlined, but opportunities providedby practice-based innovation are open to everyone(individual employees or customers, organizations, professional groups, sectors, regions …)

- Practice-based innovation activities typically originatefrom employees, customers or partner networks in daily activities

- It is important to recognize different types of innovationsand different ways of doing innovation activities

- It is also important to support combining of science-based and practice-based innovation activities

Challenges in practice-based innovation activities

- There is still prejudice against practice-based innovationactivities – they are seen as less valuable

- Lots of potential: - In combining different types of innovations – e.g.,

technological product innovations and service orprocess innovations

- At the interfaces of different fields- In listening to different types of customers and

employees with their special needs and expectations

Helinä Melkas

• A group of ”active seniors” took part in creating a novel service concept for a new housing unit for the elderly

• Stakeholders: a third sector service provider, City of Lahti, ”experts” (researchers) and students of design

• Participants in the idea generation process:– About 60 persons were willing to participate in the idea

generation exercise– 45 participants finally produced ideas or refined ideas

presented by others (anonymously); altogether about 300 idea initiatives

- Two fictional characters (’Onni’ & ’Martta’) were used to assist the idea generation phase

- The participants expressed their ideas by means of (assisted) use of an Internet-based tool

Case: Collaborative design of a new housing unit for the elderly

Helinä Melkas

• Location of the housing/wellbeing unit• Accommodation in the unit• Technology needed in the unit• Joint spaces for activities• Requirements or wishes concerning activities in the unit• Services provided in the unit

Collaborative design: The ideas were related to…

Helinä Melkas

• The housing unit/ wellbeing centre as a continuum for ”everyday life”

• Participation is more important than ”consumption of services”• A sense of community, autonomy & freedom• Basic services to assist in daily life and increase the feeling of

safety and security

To summarize: the participants of the idea generation process (future customers) wanted to be deeply involved in the centre’s service production and activities – not only as recipients, but also as ”producers”

Collaborative design: “Spirit of the ideas”

Thank you!