Collaborative Innovation Frameworks

When I set out to look at frameworks and design toolkits for entrepreneurs, most help you think holistically about all the moving parts of a business, but I found few that also help you think from a systemic lens about the outcomes of a business while being human-centered. I’m compiling a set of resources and tools that help do exactly that for sustainable innovation and business design. Here are a few actionable frameworks  and toolkits that stood out: 🔵 The Flourishing Business Canvas by Strategic Innovation Lab • An upgraded version of the traditional Business Model Canvas, the canvas helps you think to integrate social benefits and environmental regeneration along with financial viability. • Who it's for: Folks starting a new enterprise, or developing a new strategy for an existing business. • https://lnkd.in/gJMXeBP8    🔵 Circular Business Design Guide by PA Consulting, Ellen MacArthur Foundation & University of Exeter • This guide offers step-by-step guidance to identify circular business opportunities, value propositions, capabilities, and pricing strategies • Who’s it for: Business leaders wanting to understand how they can create, deliver and capture value from circular practices • https://lnkd.in/gJZJhAbX 🔵 Doughnut Design for Business by Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) • A taster tool for enterprise design that takes 2 hours to fill out and helps explore five design layers: a company’s Purpose, Networks, Governance, Ownership, and Finance. • Who it’s for: Organisations or individuals who can gather multiple businesses for a workshop - Accelerators, Incubators, etc. It can also be used by those working within or with an individual business. • https://lnkd.in/gvbSDQJV 🔵 P.ACT-Co-design Partnerships Tool by MIT D-Lab • A set of 12 Practical Tools for Co-designing Inclusive Partnership Models by MIT’s D-Lab - helps co-create have a shared understanding and buy-in for the value created and captured within the partnership • Who it's for Impact entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, partnership brokers and facilitators, and accelerators supporting impact entrepreneurs** • https://lnkd.in/gaqC9aNz    🔵 Circularity Deck by Jan Konietzko at Delft University of Technology • This deck has specific strategies to incorporate circularity into a business model along with case studies that show how it produced clear tangible business outcomes like lower operating costs or increased customer retention etc. • Who it's for: Business leaders ideating and aligning teams around a circular economy. • https://lnkd.in/gtPVnGuJ ⚫ What are other tools and methods that folks in this space have found valuable to share? #innovation #circularbusiness #designstrategy #designtools

Buyers and sellers negotiate across the table. That’s how procurement typically works: price, specs, timeline, risk management - often with an “us vs. them” mindset. Established players with more resources nearly always win. Deals for earlier stage tech often die, especially when the risk appetite of the buyer is low. What if, well ahead of the procurement phase, they worked around the table instead? That question led to the formation of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) when I was at Meta more than a decade ago. Telecom infrastructure innovation moved slowly, and startups struggled against entrenched players. Procurement cycles sometimes dragged on for years, burning most if not all of the capital of uncountable start-ups. Inspired by the success of the Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) in data center tech, TIP brought telecom ecosystem players together to collaborate well before procurement began. Vodafone, Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, AT&T and other large global operators, small and large infrastructure providers, innovators building new approaches — all under the moniker “Together We Build”. We created project groups — or “mini ecosystems” — for every part of the telecom infrastructure stack. These groups defined specs collaboratively. Buyers and sellers across hundreds of different companies aligned on what solutions needed to achieve. Tech was validated together instead of through separate evaluation processes. That framing shift mattered enormously. Corporate partners became collaborators solving shared infrastructure challenges, not buyers evaluating vendor proposals. This new mindset opened dialogues that bilateral negotiations could never produce. Some TIP initiatives succeeded. Others went nowhere. Many are still charging ahead. But the effort accelerated innovation across the space because community collaboration drives progress in ways transactional relationships simply cannot. I use that model at Gigascale Capital now, bringing portfolio companies and corporate partners together early — especially during the discovery stage. Framing discussions around learnings and collaboration instead of immediately jumping into sales pitches and negotiations. Building relationships around the table, where new technologies can advance together. Ensuring that the playing field for innovation to thrive is set up for success.

Transforming How We Think About Collaboration: The 'Collaborative Innovation' Approach 🪄 🎯 𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 Instead of seeking lowest-common-denominator agreement, start with a powerful vision that attracts committed changemakers. 👥 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Rather than "open door" meetings, carefully select participants to ensure the whole system is in the room — from grassroots to grasstops. 🔄 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗖𝗼-𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Move away from "develop-then-present" to working together in real-time, leveraging collective intelligence. ⚡️ 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Stop pushing for false harmony and start using differences as catalysts for innovation. ✨ 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 Build the strategy through action rather than endless planning sessions. What's powerful about this approach is how it transforms resistance and diversity into sources of innovation. It's not about getting everyone to agree — it's about weaving different perspectives into transformative interventions. Insights from Russ Gaskin, CoCreative and Ashoka's Leading Multi-stakeholder Collaborations course💡 🤔 How do you navigate the tension between inclusion and focused action in your collaborative work? #SystemicChange #Collaboration #Innovation #Leadership #CollectiveImpact

Collaboration across functions is hard. Most collaboration efforts fall flat because they feel forced and disconnected from 'real' business outcomes. A well-designed Strategic Collaboration Program (SCP) fixes that. Here’s how to go about it: 1. Start with Intention – Collaboration isn’t the goal; it’s a means to a strategic outcome. Get clear on what success looks like. 2. Create Shared Frameworks – Give teams a common language, decision-making tools, and structured ways to work through complexity together. Show them 𝘩𝘰𝘸. 3. Find the Connectors – Every organization has people who are natural bridge-builders between teams. Train them in scalable, repeatable methods that make collaboration easier. 4. Balance Flexibility & Discipline – Collaboration works best when there’s enough structure to guide it and enough space for creativity. 5. Make it Actionable – Collaboration without execution is just a nice-to-have conversation. Tie it to real business challenges and impact. 6. Embed It – Make collaboration a habit by weaving it into leadership behaviors, performance metrics, and everyday work. Collaboration is about making it easier for people to solve meaningful problems together. Where do you see collaboration getting stuck in your org? What are some things that have or haven’t worked? Please let us know in the comments!

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Instead, many impactful innovations emerge from creatively combining existing ideas and methods—a process known as 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. A recent paper titled "Structuring Scientific Innovation: A Framework for Modeling and Discovering Impactful Knowledge Combinations" demonstrates that Large Language Models (LLMs) can effectively assist this process. The authors propose a framework that systematically identifies promising problem-method combinations using LLM-driven reasoning, supported by objective evaluation metrics (𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘅). How does it work in practice? Consider battery recycling: Given a new challenge in sustainable recycling technologies, we first retrieve existing methods (chemical separation, mechanical sorting, enzymatic treatments), evaluates potential innovative combinations through quantitative metrics, and iteratively refines the solutions using an optimization algorithm. This framework exemplifies how AI-powered tools can amplify our natural ability to innovate by recombining existing knowledge effectively. https://lnkd.in/eyNMrjRz