What are the best conditions for innovation: expansion or contraction; order or chaos; freedom or constraint? Experienced in the last century, crisis and recession catalysed world-changing innovation: new business models, revolutionary technologies and the opening of new markets—turning negative change into positive opportunity. In this post-recession climate, is necessity the Mother of innovation?

“Innovation isn’t just about creating new products, its about creating new normal out of chaos” – Simon Jacobson

Though the 2007 financial crisis resulted from poor decisions made in the banking world, its effects have rippled outwards affecting funds available for design research, construction, advertising, engineering, everything. As we sit in 2011, business continues, but not as usual and we find ourselves with fewer resources, people-power and cash flow. A mighty constraint, this demands we overhaul our previous ways of working and living, bringing boundless potential for innovation.

The beauty of chaos is that it does not appreciate bad design. It is not the design of streets, cars or knitwear specifically, but rather the design of businesses, revenue streams, public services and consumption patterns. Chaos brings to focus their cracks, flaws and instabilities and it is our responsibility to redesign, iterate and make change.

Who else thinks like this? Companies like IBM:

And Jeremy Gutsche:

And read this Frog Design article about how crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

Samsung’s organisational culture is based on a perpetual state of crisis and there is neurophysiological evidence for the effectiveness of crisis as a catalyst for innovation.

If you want to know more about where we are coming from and what caused the current crisis have a look at this article.