As part of my role as a Facilitator for Warwick Business
School’s “
Knowledge & Innovation Network” (KIN), I was privileged to be
invited to a Sci-Fi Symposium organised by the
Defence, Science &Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The event took place just before Christmas 2017,
and was led by Dr John Carney, Principal Scientist and Mrs Caz Pitt (Innovation
Process & Culture Lead) at Dstl. , The aim of the Symposium was
to explore whether the stimulus of Science
Fiction might enable the development of new solutions and provide unexpected
insights into future security and military challenges.
With this year’s schedule of events for KIN being focussed
primarily on innovation practices and techniques, I was interested to learn
whether the format for this event could be applied more generally as a stimulus
for innovation within other KIN member organisations, or adapted as a model for
the wider public and private sectors. I think we would all agree that British
industry is facing an uncertain future, and we must be able to survive and
thrive in an increasingly competitive global market. We can only do this with innovative
products and services, delivered at competitive prices and assured quality.
The objectives for the symposium were defined as follows:
·
To provide
a forum for verbal interaction between Science Fiction writers, Academics with
a specialism in science fiction and/or creative writing, scientists and other
interested parties from across the Ministry of Defence and wider Government.
·
To
educate Government scientists in the value of creative writing and thinking
differently.
·
To
stimulate small group discussions on (pre-prepared) defence and security
challenges through the perspective of science fiction with a view to generating
new insights and ideas
Having set the context for the day, we heard from various
academics and Sci-Fi authors who provided short briefings with the aim of providing
stimulus for the group discussion activities that followed, as follows:
·
Dr
Ping Zheng (University of Canterbury) and
Dr Victor Callaghan (University of
Essex) on how science fiction and fantasy have been used to stimulate
innovation.
·
Nicole
Devarenne - Lecturer in English and Film Studies with special interests in
South African literature and film, science
fiction and speculative fiction
·
Sean McFate
– Expert in Future of War, author and novelist, including Tom Locke novels.
·
Nick
Harkaway – Sci-Fi author, who reminded us that Sci-Fi is not always good at
predicting the future.
Interspersed with the scene setting and networking
activities, the core part of the day was based around small group discussions on
11 different challenges. The challenges were set by various Dstl subject matter
experts and consisted of a broad theme and a summary briefing, setting out the problem
or challenge and what was required from the group. Members of the 11 groups
were allocated based on the preferences they had selected as part of the pre-symposium
delegate instructions. Each group discussion lasted for 1 hour, and was led by a
Dstl presenter and supported by a Dstl rapporteur, who summarised the outcomes
from the discussion as part of a plenary feedback at the end of the day. The
symposium was organised such that participants were able to contribute to at
least two group discussions during the day.
Just to give some context to the group discussions, the
headline topics for the 11 challenges were as follows:
1.
Radiation Protection for Humans
2.
Digital Diplomat
3.
Safe Spaces
4.
Human Behaviour in Smart Environments *
5.
Defence (in)efficiency: what does the future
hold?
6.
Making our people more capable, in less time *
7.
Understanding and Exploring Threat
8.
Please report to the information assurance
bureau for re-education
9.
Societal reactions to new technologies
10. Expeditionary
Warfare
11. Where’s
the baddie?
I think you will see from the above that - with some obvious
exceptions – many of the topics could apply to just about any organisation
seeking innovative ideas for improving performance. The two groups that I participated in are
shown asterisked, specifically chosen because the subject was fairly generic
and played more to my personal knowledge and experience.
The key dynamic which (I believe) contributed to the overall
success of this seminar, was the ‘free-thinking’ stimulus developed initially
from the pre-workshop presentations, and the diversity of knowledge, experience
and personality within each discussion group. Either by accident or design (I
think the latter), each group had a blend of academics, Sci-Fi authors, subject
matter experts and practitioners. An unusual mix, some might say, and the
logistics of assembling such a cohort cannot be underestimated.
I don’t have the detailed outcomes from all of the
discussion groups, but the two groups I participated in generated a number of
new ideas that haven’t previously been explored by Dstl. Of course, turning
these ideas into practical solutions may not be always possible, and this may
ultimately be the measure of success for this type of seminar. However, based
on my own experience, and with reference to the title of this blog, I think
that Sci-Fi did indeed provide a stimulus for innovation in our discussions.
The question is, whether the overall approach could be a template
for any organisation or sector that is serious about wanting to innovate
or challenge institutional inertia. The cost and logistics of assembling the
diversity of talent will be a major factor, but I think the process is
scalable, i.e. a focus on fewer challenges with fewer participants. I don’t
think it has to necessarily include a Sci-Fi element (though this might be
useful for more technologically-oriented organisations) but does need to
include participants with imagination and creative skills.
Authors and novelists seem to fit this criterion, but it
would be useful to explore other creative arts, such as musicians, artists,
actors etc., people who are more likely to think differently to civil servants
or corporate employees. Innovation means doing things differently, and that
starts with thinking differently. This will no doubt be the challenge for many
organisations, moribund in “group think”.
Dstl will be presenting the lessons learnt and some
highlights from this Sci-Fi Symposium at their showcase stand at the KIN Spring
Workshop, The London Shard, 22nd March 2018. Not to be missed!
Other Reference Links:
Steve Dale
KIN Facilitator
