I happened to glimpse upon an article yesterday evening “Arup Joins IDEO with Cards for Innovation” over at Bruce Nussbaum’s Design Blog (Businessweek.com).
The article explains that Arup, a leading engineering firm, have launched their “Drivers of Change 2006” series of 50 cards and made them available to the public for the reasonable price of £19.95. The cards cover social, technological, environmental, economic and political issues.
Each card depicts a single driver. A factoid and rhetorical question are on one face, backed up by a brief indication of the breadth and depth of the content on the other face.
I have come accross the Method Cards before, first hearing about them through Buro Happold actually. They have a set of cards which emulate the ideas based on the original cards by IDEO.
What strikes me about the Arup cards is the fact that, like the IDEO cards, they are directed more towards a situation for anyone to use the cards and think about the direction of either a project or a situation. The Buro Happold cards seem to have more of a company direction as the main focus, using the fifty cards as a direction guide to employees.
I think that innovation has to start within a company, right at the grass roots and within the companies structure and firm beliefs. You can’t just create innovative services and products but you have to foster innovation at the employees level. The workplaces, company ethos, day-to-day working techniques and employee inter-relations.
I have ordered myself a set of the IDEO Method Cards, and I may possibly take the plunge and get some of the Arup Drivers of Change 2006. Interesting stuff!
