The mediaX “Thinking Tools for Wicked Problems” webinar series concludes with Martha Russell as she examines how we are interconnected in this networked world and how to orchestrate relational capital and shared vision to create the future we want to live in.

1. Ecosystemic Resilience in Uncertain Times
Martha G. Russell
H-STAR, mediaX
June 2020

2. 2
2020 –Thinking Tools for Wicked Problems
Insights and Perspectives - Personal Journeys
New Playbook for
Corporate Resilience
Enabling the
Economy to Reopen
Robotics for Human
Resilience
3 Algorithmists Meet
RobinHood
Surmounting Data
Barriers on Global
Health Solutions
A Pop-up Training
Model for Critical
Needs
A Wicked Problem
About Thinking:
Cognitive Security
Human-Robot
Interaction through
the Lens of Learning
and Control
Changing Patterns of
Interaction
Drop Dead Happy
Can Consistent Trust
Decisions Bring
People Back to Work?
Re-envisioning the
Seat-time Algorithm
in Education
A Silver Lining in
Pandemic Disruption
to Learning in Schools
How Socio-Emotional
Learning Drives Well-
Being and Innovation
Making Context
Relevant for Learning
Essential Skills for the
Workplace
Ecosystemic
Resilience in
Uncertain Times
Personal Journeys
Around Change

3. Ecosystemic Resilience in
Uncertain Times
Relational capital links innovation agents
across ecosystems layers & sectors
• Sustainable ecosystems rely on
horizontal, peer-to-peer linkages among
different agents
Vitality and resilience of ecosystems can be
fostered
• Enhance collaboration within and
among existing and emerging networks
Trust and shared vision accelerate innovation
• Create stories about the future you
want to live in
• Know and orchestrate relational capital
for ecosystemic resilience & innovation

4. Intensive Learning on the Globally
Interconnected Ecosystem of People, Media, Expectations
Epidemiology – Contagion, R naught factor, hand washing
Supply Chain – Test kits, PPE, respirators, masks, home delivery
Operations Management – Home schooling & working, toilet paper
Data Visualization – Flattening the curve, descriptive/predictive stats
Forecasting – Implications for economies, education, transport
Civics – Civil rights, human rights, freedom of speech, bias, security
Communications – Bandwidth, fake news, Zoom, AR, VR

5. Alumni
Leadership
Networks

6. CSLI
Eng
EE M&B
LSTD
SSP
FAB
SCAnS
PBLL
GSB
Ling
CSS
DC
Discovery Collaborations
Span Stanford Labs
Learning Sciences and
Technology Design
Digital Cities
Graduate School
Of Business
Computational Social Science
FabLab
Project Based
Learning Laboratory Symbolic
Systems Program
Engineering
& Product
Design
Center for the Study Of Language
& Information
Stanford Center for
Anatomical Imaging
Computer
Science
Mind & Body Lab
Linguistics
Phil
Philosophy
Law
Center for
Legal Informatics
LIFE Learning in Informal and
Formal Environments
CS
Electrical Engineering
F&I
Foresight & Innovation
VHIL
Virtual Human
Interaction Lab
WTO
Work Technology &
Organization
CIBR
Interdiscipinary
Brain Research
Center
D.S Stanford Joint Program in
Design
d.school
WellWaLL
Wellness
Center
Wearables
& Learning

7. The Way We USED to Think About Organizations
Bottom Line:
Ecosystemic Infrastructure = Relationships
Relationship-Focused Co-Creation
Infrastructure
Companies are interlocked through key people –
information flows, norms, mental models.
(Davis,1996)
Ditto for Countries and Communities
Ditto again for Digital Communities
New Organizational Chart Based on Relationships

8. “Engaging in digital ecosystems requires a
new set of managerial skills and
capabilities.
How quickly companies develop them will
determine if they succeed in the
ecosystem economy.”
Jürgen Meffert and Anand Swaminathan, McKinsey & Company

9. Case: Sørlandet
Torger Rev, Innovation Ecosystems Summit, Stanford University, July 11, 2011

10. Shipping
brokers
Effective
ports and
terminals
Advanced
ship equip-
ment
Maritime
R&D
Specialized
ship yards
Maritime
education
Ship
design
Maritime
IT
Ship
management
Marine
insurance
Shipping
finance
Advanced
fisheries
Environmental
standards
Maritime
policies
Offshore
oil and gas
industry
Logistics
systems
Maritime lawyers
Ship
classification
services
SHIPPING
Maritime:
From ship tonnage to maritime technology and finance
Torger Rev, Innovation Ecosystems Summit, Stanford University

11. SHIPPING
Maritime Technology
and Finance
Maritime:
From ship tonnage to maritime technology and finance
Torger Rev, Innovation Ecosystems Summit, Stanford University

12. 12
Example: Walmart and Amazon
System and Ecosystem Strategies
The API Economy – Visualized
Walmart
Internal applications dev
Relies on strategic decisions
Amazon
Open APIs catalyze network
Relies on market demand

13. Systemic vs. Ecosystemic Approach to Innovation
System Ecosystem
Economic Dynamics Closed, static, in equilibrium Open, dynamic, dissipative
Emergence & Synergy Linear Nonlinear
Network Interaction Agents interact indirectly Agents interact directly
Governance and Adaptation Hierarchic governance Heterarchical governance
Capacity Sum of available resources
Linear knowledge flow
Change requires exogenous force
Evolves from continual changes
Non-linear knowledge flow
Change relies on network inter-connections
Model of Production Linear innovation
Driven by individual firms
Interactive co-creation by collaborative
networks
Community Non-cohesive organizational structures
Depends on current actors and
infrastructure
Holistic social communities
Depends on cohesive inter-linkages
Business Priorities Development of institution & policy Enhancement of horizontal linkages and
augmentation of cohesive value context
Russell & Smorodinskaya, 2019

14. Ecosystems Are Reconfigurable, Heterarchical, Adaptive

15. Case: Salesforce
Yuliya Snihur, Llewellyn D.W. Thomas,Robert A. Burgelman, The Performative Power of Words: How Business
Model Innovators Use Framing for Strategic Advantage, in Cognition and Innovation, 2018..
Yuliya Snihur, Llewellyn D. W. Thomas and Robert A. Burgelman (2018) An Ecosystem-Level Process Model of
Business Model Disruption, Journal of Management Studies, 55:7 November 2018 doi:10.1111/joms.12343
Ecosystem Partners
Media/content
Sales/Distribution
Consulting
System Integration
Dev support
Service Extension
Wireless Access
Transitions in Framing
- Dramatizing difference (1999-20000
“No software” strategy
Asserting Leadership (2000-2001)
Guerilla Marketing
- Active Contestation (2001-2003)
City Tour
- Consolidating Dominance (2006-2006)
Dream Force
-
Business Model innovation
often involves the creation of a
new ecosystem.

16. Complex Adaptive Systems
Basic network effect – impact of relationships
Non-determinate (adaptive) behavior
Presence of feedback linkages and reflexive cycles
- Both positive and negative
Dispersed pattern(s) of coordination
- Ability to self-organize, self-regulate and self-govern
Generativity
Self-similarity, fractal-type recursions
Holistic and synergistic nature
Russell & Smorodinskaya, 2019

17. Agile, Resilient, Sustainable Transformation
17

18. What is Ecosystemic Resilience?
Adaptive and resilient innovation is built on sustainable, collaborative
networks
• Producing innovation in a non-linear way,
• Through the collective action of legally independent actors
• That increasingly relies on horizontal, peer-to-peer linkages among
different agents.
Based on interlocking relationships that create complex competitive and
cooperative dynamics that engage players through a connective tissue of
• Platforms, technologies, trust, and
• Shared vision
Russell & Smorodinskaya, 2019

19. Trust Accelerates - Shared Vision Transforms
Actors &
Events
Impact
over time
New Relationships
and Coalitions
Transformation
Facilitate
Celebrate
Co-Create
Value & Trust
Shared
Vision
Adapted from Martha G. Russell, Kaisa Still, Jukka Huhtamaki, and Neil Rubens,
“Transforming innovation ecosystems through shared vision and network orchestration”
Cultivate

20. 20
Practical Implications for Ecosystemic Resilience
Cultivate
Cultivate shared vision of interdependencies
and collective resources
Monitor Monitor at the holistic level
Remove Remove inner and outer communication gaps
Encourage Encourage autonomous relational contracts
Promote
Promote quantity and quality of feedback
linkages
Increase Increase the number of network nodes
Put ME in the Story
http://uphillwriting.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Reality-Mirror.gif

21. Key Points
Relational capital links innovation agents
across ecosystems layers & sectors
• Sustainable ecosystems rely on
horizontal, peer-to-peer linkages among
different agents
Vitality and resilience of ecosystems can be
fostered
• Enhance collaboration within and
among existing and emerging networks
Trust and shared vision accelerate innovation
• Create stories about the future you
want to live in
• Know and orchestrate relational capital
for ecosystemic resilience & innovation

22. Interconnected Relationship Ecosystem

23. Cultivate the Relational Capital of Your Network
R Naught = the expected number of cases directly
generated by one case in a population where all
individuals are susceptible to infection
Relational Capital = all relationships - market relationships,
power relationships and cooperation - established
between firms, institutions and people, which stem from
a strong sense of belonging and a highly developed
capacity of cooperation
Russell et al, , 2015Aronson, Brasey, Mahtoni, 2020

24. Crowd Clovers
Source: Playbook for Strategic Foresight and Innovation, www.innovation.io/playbook
ME
CATALYSTS
ENABLERS
CONNECTORS
PROMOTERS
Circle the
names
of the people
whom you work
with formally
• Catalysts: People who
provoke you with new
insights and possibilities
• Connectors: People
who grow your idea or
effort by providing
access to other partners,
workers, resources,
funding, etc.
• Enablers: People who
help you realize your
idea through action or by
prodding you to proceed
• Promoters: People who
broadcast and circulate
your idea (and you) with
other networks
WORKSHEET

25. Orchestrate to Enable and Empower

26. What Can We Do Together
That Neither of Us Could Do Alone?
Very Virtual Retreat
July 13-17: Presentations
July 27-31: In-world Q&A and working sessions