At the Cutter Summit yesterday morning, the opening keynoter Rob Austin, professor at Harvard Business School, presented his research on innovation, the theme of this year’s summit. He’s interested in the space in-between creativity research that looks at the individual make-up, and creative environments research that looks at how to create spaces where people will innovate. Rob and his team are looking at the thinking processes of notable innovative people.

Over and over during his keynote yesterday, and in the panel session, he talked about innovative people’s ability to respond to unplanned events, to surprises, to new information, to things not working as planned. Sounds like Responsibility Redefined to me.  I’m meeting with Rob and his research team this afternoon to explore further and will report back what I learn.