Why evidence is so important for scaling innovation
A good idea will sell itself, right? Unfortunately not – Emerson was spectacularly wrong when he suggested that all you needed to do was build that better mousetrap to have the world beating a path to your door.
History is full of examples of innovations that, whilst being good and proven solutions, more than just a gleam in their inventor’s eye, stubbornly refused to scale. There are plenty of them in the world of commercial innovation – and in the field of social change, innovations designed to have an impact and change the world, it’s even more difficult.
One of the challenges is around the role of evidence. At its simplest we adopt new things because we see some benefit in them, they make our lives easier, more comfortable or better in some way. That’s what gives rise to the S-curve shape which you can find associated with any innovation – it isn’t a case of all or nothing, adoption takes time. And one of the key influences on that is the role of evidence.
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