Building Urban Innovation Toolkit

What transformative skills and practices are relevant for your toolkit as an urban innovation leader?

The CityLab innovation toolkit expanded my understanding of what effective problemsolving looks like. Data and technology remain important, but they are only part of the toolkit. I also see significant value in asset mapping, appreciative inquiry, critical reflection, design thinking, collaborative processes, focused conversation, empathic listening, stakeholder engagement, and experimentation.

These tools are directly transferable to my professional environment. Engineering organizations often begin with requirements, data, schedules, risks, and technical constraints. CityLab has taught me to add another set of questions: Who experiences this problem? Who understands it differently than I do? What assets already exist? Who has not been included in the conversation? What assumptions are we making? How can we test an idea before committing to a larger solution?

My toolkit will continue to build ong systems thinking, data, technology, human-centered observation, ethical judgment, collaboration, and continuous learning. Rather than immediately trying to solve a problem, I want to become better at making sure we are solving the right problem with the right people involved.