The week before last I was lucky enough to see Trevor Baylis speak at the Social Entrepreneur Show at Olympia. He was, for me, the epitome of both an inventor and innovator. White-mustachioed, gesticulating wildly, and quoting himself on successive power-point slides, it seemed as if he had just, after several years, burst out of the garden shed where he invented the wind-up radio. He was an explosion of passion and energy about new ideas and how to apply them to make the world a better place.
He was unashamedly on a quest to introduce a culture of invention in the UK, and had several important insights about the process of ideas-generation. Some are directly applicable to innovation in the third sector, and some perhaps require mapping over the more-than-profit divide.
The most memorable moment of the speech came just after Mr Baylis shamed the audience into admitting that they could only name a handful of inventors, none female, when he spoke of his pride in having participated in the One-to-One advert campaign for Vodafone (?) of a few years ago. His chosen person was Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine, whose idea was deemed ‘impractical’ by the Air Ministry on the basis that it was too simple. A different decision by them, Baylis alleges, would have saved tens of thousands of lives by cutting short the Battle of Britain.
Honouring and raising the profile of past inventors is critical to imbuing a culture of inventiveness in the next generation, Baylis argues. I think the same is true of the third sector innovation. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been able to think of many examples, and need some back-up.
Who have been our heroes? Which social innovator would each of the other bloggers, or anyone reading, like to have a One-to-One with?
Social innovator - someone who envisages a different kind of future. People to have a one to one with?
Gandhi - MLK - Bhagat Singh - wollstonecraft - vandana shiva; on thinking
Young and Benenson - on structures/methods
To name but a few - we have so many heroes - and a great deal to learn from their experiences. Their challenge was to demonstrate that thinking outside the box or taking action in a different way could work for a better future - perhaps in most cases independent of other sectors and their systems and processes. Our challenge is to take this one step further - to integrate our vision and methods within the existing systems and processes. Bring it on!
Great post.
I’d like a 1:1 with Tim Smit. I never knew I could be so interested in gravel until I read his book!
I heard on the radio last week that he has a rule for all his employees - they have to read 2 books a year that they would not typically buy and feed back how the books may have helped them see things in a new way.
I am very lucky in that I am working alongside some of my true social innovator heroes. Lynne Elwell, who runs the UK Partners into Policymaking courses for one.
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