The document discusses learning clusters and how they can adapt to changing environments. It emphasizes that clusters must learn to evolve with external changes and shifting customer expectations. Clusters can learn from each other through open collaboration and sharing knowledge. However, building trust is difficult and collaboration only makes sense when necessary. The document suggests that clusters must look beyond the present to anticipate challenges and ride emerging waves of change. It stresses that challenging cognitive biases is important for clusters to consider new perspectives and be open to doing things differently to drive innovative growth.

1. Madeline Smith
Head of Innovation, EKOS
Learning Clusters
TCI 2009

2. What do we mean by Learning Clusters
 How can Clusters Learn?
 Why should they learn?
 Challenges to overcome?
o External Environment
o Internal behaviours
 Focus for this week
Doing
(sensing)
Reflecting
(perceiving)
Linking
(intuition)
Planning
(judging)
KOLB D A (1984) Experiential Learning: experience as the source of
learning and development

3. Why are we here?
 TCI
o Share experiences
o Learn from others
o Take something back
 Good intentions fail
o Real world intervenes
o “Day job”
o Difficult to change what we do

4. Cluster’s Environment
Is it a good environment for growth?
• Money – Financial Capital
• Skills – Human Capital
• Knowledge – Intellectual capital
• Access to Markets – Market Capital
• Things – Physical Capital
• Networks – Social Capital

5. Clusters are ...
 Subject to changes in external environment
 Affected by changing customer expectations
 Must learn to adapt and evolve
 Listen to those at the edge – early signals
 Learning organisations
 By nature open and collaborative
 Share knowledge
 Learn from each other
 Learning to work in different way

6. Clusters – Innovative Communities
 Communities are driven by
(one or more):
 Innovation Communities
exhibit cohesion in some +
diversity in others
 Innovation is often expressed
at a communities’ ‘edges’
Purpose
PassionPlace
Perspective
Trust
Beyond Open Innovation, Dames, Robson, Smith & Tumulty, 2007

7. Building Trust
 Very important
 Very difficult
 Trust is necessary precondition for collaboration – in
practice the suspicion rather than trust is the starting
point.
 Difficulties in collaboration
“Seeking collaborative advantage is a seriously
resource-consuming activity, so is only to be considered
when the stakes are really worth pursuing…don’t do it
unless you have to” (Huxham and Vangen, 2005)

8. Stimulation and
Acquisition of
relevant
research and
development
L5 FUTURE FOCUS
LOOP
Performance of
individual firms
Overall
performance of
all firms in the
zone
Intensity of
differentiated
competitive
performance
Motivation for
competitive
innovation
Degree of
enhancement of
competitive
innovation
Competitive
level of
platform for
innovation
Sharing of
critical sectoral
knowledge
Extent of
collaborative
initiatives
Extent of shared
response to
common
challenges
L1 INTER-FIRM RIVALRY LOOP
L2 INTER-FIRM CO-OPERATION
LOOP
Global competition
and external market
pressure
Type of cultural
context
L3 COLLABORATIVE
ADVANTAGE
LOOP L4 VENTURE
ATTRACTIVENESS
LOOP
Collection – Cooperation - Collaboration
Competitive
power of cluster
Smith and Brown, Local Economy, June 2009
The Cluster Dynamic Loops

9. Proactive not Reactive
 Look further ahead
 Anticipate dips
 Catch and ride the next
wave
 Speed of change ever
faster
 Challenging our ability to learn fast enough
 Innovation needed
o When speed of change > Ability to learn

10. Activity+
Horizon 2Horizon 1 Horizon 3
Innovation . . . 3 Horizons
Improve the
current
Envision the
possible
Nurture the
emergent
Sustaining innovation Transformative innovation
Disruptive Innovation
David Robson, Head of Energy and Environment Foresight

11. Learning to change
 Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results.
 Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results.
 Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results.
 Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

12. How do we recognise good ideas
 Our current “world view” restricts our ability to learn
 Cognitive Bias / Cognitive Frameworks
Visible
Challengeable
Fluid
Hidden
Un-challengeable
Rigid
Intelligence & Information
Analysis Hypotheses
Mental models Assertions
Beliefs Assumptions
Time
Cognitive
Framework
Barriers to Learning

13. Points of view

14. You do not have the full picture
 Diverse groups learn quicker
 Diverse groups perform better

15. Learning clusters
We need to
 Be open and collaborative
 Value external input
 Collective learning is more effective
 Look for other perspectives – to complete the picture
 Challenge our cognitive barriers – “same as usual” is not
good enough
 Be ready to do things differently

16. Revisit on Friday

17. Madeline Smith
Head of Innovation
EKOS Ltd
Email: madeline.smith@ekos.co.uk
Tel: +44 141 353 1994
www.ekos-consultants.co.uk