"We need to play more jazz together”  (part 2)

- Trust-based and outcome-oriented ecosystems for digital and green transformation.

This is the follow up on the previous article about Sustainable cluster development - found here >>

**

Over the years in cluster development we have learned some guiding principles:

1) Identify the engine in the system - Each cluster organization and its goal are tied to an expected engine - the one that should drive the cluster towards the goal. Each engine needs (at least) a resource, a way to convert or develop it, and an effect that creates more resources. Since ancient times, societies have been created around resources such as mines, rivers, or arable land. Today, these are replaced by educational institutions, large companies, or an environment that provides a good quality of life, employment, or identity.

2) If the goal is visionary enough, the cluster can handle identity changes - The world is changing, where learning, new technologies, and increased information change semantics. This means that a cluster's identity, formed in "another time," may need to be revised without losing sight of why the cluster exists. Here are examples of how telecommunications has evolved into tech, the automotive industry into mobility, or life sciences into health. The goal and resources are the same, but the identity changes for the purpose.

3) Work with those who want to be involved - Engagement is more important than participation in the same way that outcomes are more critical than execution. Creating engagement is based on finding others who are passionate and letting them inspire and drive each other. The passion and attitude in such a group provide good momentum and are economically advantageous. The opposite would be to spend a lot of time convincing skeptics and working with those who only participate because they have to or to get value for their membership fee or similar investment.

4) Be inclusive - Always keep the door open for those who want to participate. As an extension of the above principle of engagement, anyone who has curiosity or seeks out the cluster organization on their initiative will likely want to be involved and engage. Capture this opportunity and build engagement. Inclusion is also about culture through generosity and openness, important factors, and of course, the possibility that new competencies enrich the cluster. Lower thresholds and increase the possibility for the cluster organization's activities to be discovered, received, engaged, and excelled.

5) It's all about relationships - If trust is the key to collaboration and co-creation, it is people who create relationships. Trust is never between brands but only between individuals representing them. In addition, in an ecosystem, people will move between different brands/organizations, but relationships remain. With healthy mobility, strong relationships, and high trust, more collaboration will take place, also with a desired change as a result of mobility.

6) Informal beats formal - It may sound contradictory that we should be informal in professional settings. However, if we believe that relationships make a difference in the ecosystem, there is a greater chance of creating relationships in informal settings than in formal ones. The more we are ourselves, the stronger the engagement and informality allows for this to a greater extent.

7) Learning before achievement - In both the cluster organization and those engaging in cluster contexts, as well as in organizations whose success should meet the cluster's goals, learning is the way forward. Where achievement risks locking in, cementing already given truths, and creating hierarchies, learning provides development, change, and inclusion. No organization succeeds by being preserved, and even if today's version is successful, the world changes around it, meaning that those who do not change with it, or smarter, fall behind and lose relevance.

8) Generalist before expertise - Cluster organizations do not benefit from having their own experts but should focus on being skilled at creating collaboration. Expertise is narrow, and experts risk cementing given truths before finding new answers that might overturn their own expertise. The cluster's goal is movement and also includes numerous experts, whom the collaborative organization can gather to learn from each other. Otherwise, the dilemma becomes which expertise the cluster organization should possess, the opportunity cost for all the others not held, or that the organization must become so large that it holds all areas of expertise and those with the highest competence. Highly unlikely.

9) Financing must provide freedom - All cluster organizations need finances. Often financing comes as an investment, and the investment comes with a wish, which easily becomes a demand. Here the question of independence and neutrality arises again, as well as the ability and freedom to drive the 10,000-meter strategy and move the cluster in a direction it has not yet realized it needs. Here, meddling founders/owners must be handled with clarity, and paying members must be managed with clear expectations.

10) External forces will always have a greater impact on the internal system - The thesis of internal versus external efficiency is important to understand. Consider an "onion structure," where the organization itself, the team or individual are in the center, with its market or arena outside, and society or the country one more step out, and so on. In this structure, the market will always have a greater impact on the organization, team, or individual, just as the society or country will have on the market. Events outside our system are what will overturn the system. Examples include a pandemic, war, or when markets are revolutionized by competition from another sector.

11) The outside world is more important than the inside world - As an extension of the above theory of efficiency combined with the value of learning and movement, each actor finds greater inspiration, learning, and understanding outside their own echo chamber. Monitoring the external environment and external relationships becomes important to develop the internal system. Moreover, if the 10,000-meter strategy is high enough, it unites with those we didn't think we had anything in common with, just as we united the different interests locally using the same method.

12) Through relevance and trust, thought leadership is enabled - If movement and development are the reasons for the cluster organization's existence, there is also an expectation (albeit unconscious/unspoken) that the cluster organization is also the conductor of this movement. Then bold ideas are needed that challenge the current situation, trust in the thought leader's ability to navigate correctly, and activities that directly or indirectly lead the cluster in that direction. Without thought leaders, no common view of the direction.

13) Policy development becomes increasingly important - Where a cluster's sphere of interest has grown from local to regional, via national and now international, system issues are global, internal and external efficiency prevails (see above), and thought leadership drives movement towards the goal, cluster organizations also need to participate in forums and at tables where decisions affecting their own system are made. Here, industry associations, national working groups, and superclusters are important vessels. Success or opportunities are no longer created within the own system but in collaboration beyond geographical and thematic limitations.

14) Relevant locally, agenda-setting nationally, and attractive internationally - With the mentioned difficult tasks and learned principles, the role of the cluster organization becomes very extensive and in several dimensions. Locally, the actors move in a common direction for common benefits, nationally there is a need for foresight and engagement to drive agendas that enable regional goals and internationally to create an influx of resources such as talent, capital, and/or establishment of new organizations that can enrich the ecosystem. At the same time, horizontal learning is needed from clusters with different themes but the same systemic challenges.

**

Thus, we need to play more jazz together. By this, we mean allowing extremely talented actors to collectively create new fantastic works without sacrificing their individual skills.

And we need to learn new things constantly. As the futurist Alvin Toffler stated, "The illiterate in the 21st century will not be the one who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."