For this particular workshop I teamed up with Prof. Jeremy Bowes of OCAD University, who teaches the graduate course “Understanding Systems” in the Strategic Foresight & Innovation program and who was on sabbatical and ready for that kind of exploration. Over several weeks Jeremy and I worked hard on comparing approaches, vocabulary and concepts until we had a common foundation to actually talk about the workshop’s content itself. From there our exploration began and slowly a common vision of the interplay between systems and business models started to emerge. We presented our understanding of that interplay at the Philadelphia workshop on December 14 and 15, which was well received. Now the exploration continues and there are many more insights to gain.

Philadelphia’s DEC College is in itself a bold experiment in interdisciplinary post-secondary education, building a common core between the faculties of Design, Engineering and Commerce. By creating the space for faculty and fellows to explore and experiment they are creating an excellent innovation environment to bring much needed answers to the state of post-secondary education.

Fast forward two years. The SFI program’s success is widely acknowledged inside and outside the institution. In September 2011 the program will be taking in its third cohort. Meanwhile, the sLab has moved from small projects to a few major ones: the Media Futures 2020, a collaboration of multiple organizations led by sLab is about to be wrapped up; an sLab team has been contracted to provide inputs to the strategic planning process of OCADU for 2012-2017; members of sLab are participating in the team leading the “Take Ontario Mobile” (TOM), a collaborative project developing a vision for enabling Ontarians to access services from any device anywhere; and sLab has just started an important foresight project on Economic Futures Ontario (EFO).

Among the characteristic buzz and apparent chaos of project deadlines and the completion by the 2009 cohort of their Major Research Projects for graduation an interesting and promising capacity in the field of foresight is emerging. sLab specific methodologies are solidifying and one can almost touch the experience gained through intense engagements with real projects.

We are proud to have been involved since the beginnings in these interesting activities and look forward to continue to contribute to this unique space that sLab is carving for itself.

This year’s CIO Exchange will be held 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM on September 15, 2011 at the Toronto Board of Trade, 77 Adelaide St. West, 4th Floor, Toronto. The theme is focused on the transformation of the ICT function in the organization and the implications for the role of the CIO in the future.

More information and registration here.

In the early couple of sessions, we quickly established that Canada is slipping dangerously in a number of indicators even within OECD countries: productivity, creativity, and more recently competitiveness. The proper response seemed to require a broad movement for change with intensive exchange of knowledge and experience, dissemination of reproducible models, and visualization of achievements and success stories. The name “! Million Acts of Innovation” seemed therefore appropriate.

Discussions continued over the following sessions on what the cornerstones of this initiative should be. A number of areas emerged:

• A need for large scale mentoring
• Opportunities to collaborate with universities in a more dynamic and efficient way
• Issues related to intellectual property when developed in a collaborative environment
• Methods for counting and measuring innovation acts
• Creating diversity at all levels of the organization
• Recruiting and retaining millennials as employees and customers

The focus in all of these was doing rather than saying. The main method envisaged initially was that of facilitated small group conversations. As a result of these summer deliberations, the idea evolved to holding a series of events inviting CIOs to discuss specific issues. The first such event will be held downtown on September 22, 2010 and will be discussing the potential of collaboration between business and universities.

The ambition is to inspire a broad-based movement by many CIOS and IT Directors to initiate actions for change in support of improving their organization’s performance, competitiveness and sustainability. It is an interesting initiative worthy of consideration and support, particularly if more thought is given to designing the program details. A number of parties are considering sponsoring the initiative including the CIO Association of Canada (Ontario Chapter) subject to clarifications sought. There is a LinkedIn group that you can connect to and you can read about the initiative here.

The event is taking place on Tuesday September 14, 2010 starting 8:30 AM at the Trade Board (First Canadian Place) The event is free for qualified participants (CIOs, senior IT managers, and academics active in IT  management) courtesy of the CIO Association and supporting silent sponsors including IBM, Adobe and others. For full program details click here.

Why Innovation?

This may come as a surprise to some, but there is increasing concern about Canadian productivity compared with other industrialized nations. From third position in the OECD countries in 1960 Canada’s productivity level has dropped to 15th among the original OECD members and 17th out of the overall 30. Canada also ranks third last in productivity growth since 1980. In the last decade productivity growth in Canada averaged 1% compared with 2.5% for the USA. The increasing productivity gap has serious socio-economic consequences impacting our living standards directly.

The lagging productivity growth is linked, among other things, to a low level of innovation, which in turn can be linked to low R&D intensity (Canada stands 16th here!), investments in technological and human infrastructure, and the way we do things in our organizations. Change that creates value addressing the productivity gap whether scientific, technological, process, business model, or social innovation, falls within the broad definition of innovation. This perhaps explains the recent rise of innovation as a subject, trend, and buzzword across many disciplines and lines of business.

Why the CIO?

The role of Chief Information Officer has gone through radical changes in the past few decades. From the original custodian of IT (and later ICT), it evolved next to aligning technology with business goals and became one of the standard lines of business in organizations. But as technology became pervasive across all lines of business, the perspective of the CIO flipped from a vertical departmental one to a horizontal enterprise-wide one. The CIO became (willingly or not) the one with the most complete view of the structure and processes of the organization and the prime candidate to initiate systemic change across the traditional silos. As awareness of this change spread out in the market place, everybody came after the CIO: equipment and software vendors, management and organizational change consultants, recruiters and HR firms etc. At the intersection of strong internal and external pressures for change, the CIOs are facing a new challenge that prior experience and education did not prepare them for.

The CIO Exchange

Faced with this challenge the CIO community is responding by organizing intense learning from leaders in this space and exchanging ideas and experiences with peers. Hence the CIO Exchange, in which various perspectives of innovation:

• The communication of innovation
• The psychology of innovation
• The leadership of innovation
• The economics of innovation
• The culture of innovation
• The future of innovation

will be explored with presentations by select experts and discussions among peers in breakout groups.

The event is scheduled for September 14, 2010. Details can be found here.

Posted originally by Nabil Harfoush on IT World Canada Community Blogs on August 16, 2010

Rahaf will be on a panel discussing the implications of these developments on the CIO’s role and hear the insights of some of the other panelists including:

• Elizabeth Hackenson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, The AES Corporation
• Rob Webb, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Hilton Worldwide
• Richard Williams, Vice President and Group Chief Information Officer, AstraZeneca

Collaboration Tools for Innovation is the topic chosen for the April 9 session of the YTA Business Innovation group. John Myers, VP and General Manager of Communications Solutions Group at Open Text will be the speaker for this session. He will demonstrate some new solutions and frame the discussion about collaboration tools in the innovation context.

The session is held 12 noon to 1:30 PM at the Regus Business Centre, 15 Allstate Parkway, 6th Floor, Markham. Attendance is free but you need to register at the YTA web site:

http://www.yorktech.ca/calendar?eventId=67992&EventViewMode=EventDetails

Regardless how familiar you are with Jeremijenko’s work, you are guaranteed to discover something new and fascinating every time she speaks about her research. This well attended Explorations event was no exception and the ensuing discussion was the perfect preamble to xCAMP that immediately followed.

As organizers of xCAMP we were overwhelmed by and grateful for the interest and support extended to us. Participants brought an amazing scope of knowledge and experience to bear on the issues discussed at xCAMP. The agenda consisted of 3 main segments. In the first segment Natalie presented the xCLINIC concept and showed examples of her related activities. Then Carla Gould from the core organizing group presented a storyboard illustrating the “impatient’s” experience. She was followed by Nabil Harfoush, who took participants through xCLINIC’s foundational elements, their strengths and weaknesses, and proposed a framework for xCLINIC 2.0 aiming at establishing a movement around many xCLINICs.

Open Circle

The second segment consisted of an open circle discussion of the proposed concept followed by 5 break-out sessions that handled:

• The Starter Kit
• Creative Engagement
• Collaboration & Communications
• Alliances & Central Resources
• Benchmarks & Impact Measurements

The break-out sessions were facilitated by a wonderful team: Pam Purves, Greg Judelman, Ryan Coleman, Dan Rose, and Magda Wesolkowska, all of whom are colleagues and friends from the Design with Dialogue collective. We are grateful for their assistance and dedication.

The final segment (called Harvest) consisted of a “market place” type of exchange, where participants circulated among the displayed findings of the 5 break-out groups and added their thoughts and comments, a brief presentations by each group, and a general discussion about findings.

xCAMP generated a significant volume of ideas, solutions and activities road map, which were captured in a variety of ways including flip charts, sticky-note collections, photos and video recording.We have started the arduous task of processing all these outcomes and will be reporting on progress regularly.

Our plans call for establishing 5 permanent working groups to continue working on this project. If you are interested in participating send an email to xclinic@manara.ca with a description of your interest areas and degree of availability for participating in any one of these groups.