Innovative ways of dealing with unforeseen events

Innovative ways of dealing with unforeseen events Dorothy Sutherland Olsen and Lisa Scordato from the Nordic Institute for Studies of innovation, research and education, explore innovative ways of dealing with unforeseen events. Increasing interest in the challenges experienced by public and private organisations when unforeseen events occur, has prompted a research project looking into potential ways of developing relevant competence to deal with such events. The project has been inspired by earlier studies on innovation where change is seen, not only as a challenge, but also as an opportunity. Unforeseen events have always been around, ready to disrupt everyday routines in organisations. These events are not always completely unforeseen, but the scale is often unknown, and we can rarely predict exactly when these events might occur. These events can be pandemics, terror incidents or natural catastrophes; they can also be new technologies, new green ways of working or perhaps more local events like an employee leaving confidential documents on the bus or a construction team dropping a six-tonne oil installation. All these events require a rapid response; speed is of the essence, and errors and delays must be avoided.