I've been thinking a lot, through this pod, about the role of creativity and innovation in organizations. I'd love to come together, with anyone interested, to continue that conversation.

CORE INQUIRY: How do you design a large system - at scale - that helps creativity flourish and is reliably high in quality? What's the role of accountability? What's the role of emergence? Of structure?

BACKGROUND: Educational institutions - most of them, to be clear - are optimized for grit. I don't think that's because designers and educators don't value creativity or grace. I think it's because of the need for efficiency -- which is a byproduct of working with scale, as try to minimize your chances for failure. 

I oversee our program impacting 32,000 children. We have, over the years, made shifts to minimize variability. Because that variability (particularly the type that results in sub-par performance) could ultimately cost kids their futures. That may sound like a high-stakes way to put it, but for kids from adverse backgrounds, it can often be true.  Now, I'm working with 32,000 kids. Imagine what the government official who's responsible for India's 320 million kids is thinking? And that's exactly the kind of good intentions that carry unintendend consequences. When working with scale, such roads with good intentions are all too common. The stakes keep rising.

That leads to various further inquiries: When working at scale, how do you effectively create decentralized learning networks?  What is the role of accountability when the "let thousand flower bloom" polyculture mindset meets the need for sustained, consistent, high-quality output? In a high-stakes environment, how we create a culture of experimenation and reduce the cost of failure? What "default setting" shifts can fuel innovation and creativity -- and serendipity?

Thank you, for your support in triggering some profound insights during our Pod time together.  This Pod Room conversation originally started as a dialogue between Nipun, Shaheen and I -- but we would love to have you join this conversation as well!  My hope is to walk away from this conversation with a deeper understanding and greater inspiration to explore, a bit more.