IIInnovation as Crossroads

Drucker's "creative destruction" is an economic analogy for evolutionary selection within a market. Diversity in an ecological or economic environment encourages a robust selection process which pressures for both specialization and, alternatively, for a generalist's resilient adaptability. Innovation requires pluralism and the competition that drives selection over entrenchment and resilience rather than over-specialization.

Dealing in human systems, "selection" involves intentional preference and adaptability to changing social reality or realities. Because of technology and preference, specialization remains important, creative destruction continues to allow differentiation to drive evolution.

Because design--rather than emergence--can be satisfying in a closed system or limited context, those satisfied by a particular design/structure/ideology are invested in particular limitations or closures. Because social systems are complex and adaptive, Kay's "disciplined pluralism" (organized experimentation), rather than a purely designed process, fits. Keep in mind that most experiments fail--perfectly natural. If the organizing effects or structure can be implicit and assumed ("Of course since sliced bread is available today and will be available tomorrow..."), then explicit effort can be directed to the pluralism/experimentation (...I can become something other than a farmer"). Without implicit organization, discipline must be explicit, or coordination will be unlikely. In other words, if we aren't all connected by a somewhat structured global food distribution network, political agreement, etc., we must explicitly coordinate in a disciplined manner if we want something other than a muddled but perhaps progressively evolutionary process. (Notice this gives us options--internal/implicit structure or disciplined coordination or muddle/competition.)

Innovation occurs through relatively small-scale (closed/understandable) design changes in products and processes. At a larger scale, differentiation is insisted upon when individuals reject unsatisfying limits and push for greater openness or different organization. Too much openness/disorganization disrupts communications, including intentional coordination.

Without a sufficiently rich and non-intrusive context, innovation suffers. ("Intrusion" here can be seen as "unwanted/unwarranted/extreme demands upon intentional deployment of attention".) Innovation, then, can be seen as the crossroads between design and emergence. Innovation is the motivated application of creative focus within a sufficiently rich socio-ecological context.

When innovation is not "structured-in", differentiations will encounter limitations in the system (closures, limitations) in equally destructive but less creative ways. Emergence will be more disruptive when less coordinated even if it can be seen as progressive.