What does innovation look like in complex environments? This article looks at a "grassroots" effort involving the leaders of Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Michigan, and others (grassroots? really?) that became a network called Harvesting Academic Innovation for Learners (HAIL). The article misses (I think) the importance of complexity for innovation and management. It's as though it wants to embrace the idea but not change any existing beliefs or practices. For example, while captures the idea that autonomous agents are able to self-organize, it still seeks to impose order on the outcome. "We can describe successful future states, but we cannot predict the path forward," writes Kristen Eshleman. "Adapting a variation on the build-measure-learn model of innovation, colleges and universities can generate and explore ideas faster and can develop a portfolio of options." I don't think so. In a complex system, what worked in the past doesn't work in the future, because the work in the past has changed the state of the complex environment, and new rules now apply.
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