Atelier WeekNotes w/c 14 October 2024
RUNNING THE ATELIER. Testing an idea: Contact or Supporters Group. 0/DETECTING. #ReadingNotes. Mission-oriented innovation for sustainable polymers in liquid formulation, by Massey-Broker and Conway
I am writing newsletter of #weeknotes of starting the Atelier of What’s Next (a studio for initiatives at the frontier of generating a better future). For my rationale for starting the Atelier see here.
Another week with a lot of my time on family challenges. So, no updates on projects this week, but two things. I'm particularly keen to get people's feedback on
This week covers:
RUNNING THE ATELIER
-Testing an idea: Contact or Supporters Group.
0/DETECTING
#ReadingNotes
-Mission-oriented innovation for sustainable polymers in liquid formulation, by Massey-Broker and Conway
How can the Atelier of What's Next be of service to you, and your purposes? We'd love to hear from you. Perhaps you have a challenge or idea to put in the studio. Maybe one of our existing topics appeals to you. What if you love to make new things happen by being part of the studio? Or if you have feedback or comments that would improve this deck. Either click the button below or email davidbent@atelierwhatsnext.org.
RUNNING THE ATELIER
Testing an idea: Contact or Supporters Group.
At the start of the year, I set myself the intention of setting up a Contact / Supporters Group by the end of Q1. Now, at least 2 Qs later, I'm finally getting a round to it.
The rationale for some kind of supportive grouping of people is fairly straightforward. The Atelier is trying to do many difficult things. It is working with initiatives at the frontier of different domains, trying to have a positive impact on the world. It is also establishing its methods and credentials, aiming to innovate an organisational type and form, plus bring in sufficient revenues.
All of which is easier to do with others, rather than trying alone. As the International Futures Forum precept goes, ‘no solo climbing’.
The trick is in the specifics. Name: Contact or Supporters Group? What activities would be useful to me and, more importantly, to anyone I asked? Why would anyone say 'yes'?
Below is where my thinking has got to. Would love your thoughts.
Aims
At the start of the year, I imagined a path forward for the Atelier that focused on keep building the abilities and assets needed to open up the next phase, in these phases:
Short-term: Learning by trying.
Medium-term: Thriving by doing-and-learning.
Long-term: Contributing to a better future.
Therefore the aims of this Contact/Support Group are, relating to the Atelier’s journey:
Long-term: there are many on-going deep transformations, some of which involve initiatives and/or people who were part of the Atelier..
Medium-term: the Atelier is thriving by doing-and-learning. Initiatives are beginning to contribute to deeper change. The Atelier is known for creating some practices being used by others. The Atelier is one node in a large community of practitioners.
Short-term: the Atelier is learning by trying:
Keep improving the offer-challenge-resources fit.
Have a growing pipeline of funded work.
Made choices on resourcing and legal form on organising for abundance.
 A growing number of people interested in helping Atelier.
Plus, for the people in the Support Group themselves, from the start:
They are learning in ways that are relevant for their work and lives.
They are gaining connections which they are finding useful.
They feel they are contributing to something exciting and impactful.
They are having fun.
Right now, there isn't enough work in the Atelier for more than one person. But, if/when the volume of activity in the Atelier increases, then the group members would be obvious people to bring in (and pay) to help with delivery.
Activities
Here are some of the things I can imagine being useful to members, and also help the Atelier to learn-by-trying:
Sounding-board. Give feedback on concepts, methods, reports and so on.
Clinics. Join with workshops that are addressing a specific problem.
Detecting. Passing along insight and intelligence about what is happening at the frontiers.
Initiative spotting. Identifying and connecting the Atelier with initiatives it might be able to help.
Initiative participation. Joining in with paid work on specific initiatives.
Questions
What's your instinctive response to the idea of a Contact/Support Group?
What activities would entice you to not just say 'yes' to being a member of the Support Group, but also to take part?
What things would make it a success?
What are things to avoid?
What name do you prefer: Contact Group, Supporters Group, or something else?
0/DETECTING
#ReadingNotes
This post is part of the #ReadingNotes series, see here for more (including format and use of bulletpoints).
Mission-oriented innovation for sustainable polymers in liquid formulation, by Massey-Broker and Conway
The paper summarises a mission-orientated innovation approach, hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), on a widely-used type of polymer (PLF) which has had little attention on sustainability to date. Behind the specifics of the polymer, there are some hints of a process for setting up and starting to run a mission-orientated innovation approach at a sectoral level, but without explicit backing of a government.
The set up is widely applicable: the current product/technology benefits from 100 years of multi-faceted innovation, which has created locked-in systems on customer expectations on performance and costs, the physical supply chain and more. Incremental innovation, just optimising the existing system will not be enough.
The mission-orientated approach gives a process for created a shared understanding and commitment by setting North Stars and imagining the system innovation portfolio needed to go in those directions.
This is the pivotal diagram:
New to me was using speculative design to not just image the future end state, but also describe the innovation ecosystem that is needed to have pathways to that end state. As the paper puts it:
"For industry to move beyond incremental shifts, it needs to be able to see a future operating reality when the innovation ecosystem is thriving, so this kind of constructivist activity [imagining the ideal system innovation portfolio] provides a bridge between research and action."
This leads to an innovation portfolio which is much more than applied (technology) R&D, but covers all the components that need innovating in the system.
I was left some questions. The project accted as a constraint the minimal disruption of the consumer experience. Doubtless that accepts the reality of situation. But it did seem like wanting disruptive innovation without any disruption. Also, I worried the expressions on collaboration left the approach open to being slowed by bad faith actors. Finally, I wonder if the large-scale investment can be unlocked without the certainty of outsized returns, which then might mean that industrial policy is a pre-condition for the participants to act on their own recommendations.
All that said, it is fantastic to see some of Rowan Conway's groundbreaking work explained in public. I can only hope that more becomes available for those of us trying to learn from her great endeavours.
More here.
Citation: Massey-Brooker A, Conway R. 2024 Mission-oriented innovation for sustainable polymers in liquid formulation. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 382: 20230272. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2023.0272