The Medici effect.

“The Medici Effect - What Elephants & Epidemics can teach Us About Innovation“ is now available on the German market!

As design - and innovation agency, we are very interested in new techniques and methods regarding creating and inspiring innovation.

This is why we were especially excited when we got invited by Steelcase into their new Learning + Innovation Center here in Munich last week, where the author Frans Johansson promoted and introduced the brand-new German version of his book followed by a panel discussion in this great creative space.  

In “The Medici Effect“, Johansson describes what happens when you combine diverse concepts, industries, disciplines, and cultures to create groundbreaking ideas and innovations. The more experts from different fields get together, he states, the bigger the potential for unconventional ideas and the higher the chance to create „cognitive diversity“ and unconventional ideas. 

To demonstrate how this could work, he shared a few examples from his book. One of them was how a hospital’s design of the intensive care unit created a Medici Effect by drawing inspiration from the world of Formula One racing pit stops.

Its extreme time-efficient handling of operations on the car shared within a team of highly trained mechanics in a matter of seconds gave crucial inspirations for the design of the OR and the workflow of the team.

In the panel discussion and Q&A afterwards it was discussed what effect this has on the design of our work-spaces as well as setting up or recruiting teams. Speakers from Steelcase and Sandoz discussed this together with Johansson with questions from the audience.

The title “The Medici Effect“ stems from the Medici family, who, back in the days in Florence, arranged gatherings of “experts“ from the very different fields of science and art on a regular basis.