You are more like a Renaissance genius than you think...

[A summary of conversation from a walking tour done for the International Society for Professional Innovation Managers in Florence 16-19 June 2019]

Renaissance Italy seems a remarkably long way from the modern world we work in. We think of the white marble perfection of David, of chapel ceilings filled with painted angels, of museums and sore feet and tourists. Yes, it is amazing - it is evidence of a step change in our thinking as a culture - a melting pot of innovation - but that is often where we stop our consideration. We look at how different it was back then, not how similar we are now.

When you scratch the surface a little, the growth oriented ecosystem, plus the methods used by innovators like Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Brunelleschi and Ghiberti start to look very familiar. Some context for you...

A few weeks ago, we made our annual pilgrimage to the International Society of Professional Innovation Managers conference [#ISPIM]. This year it was in Florence. The 4 day event was outstanding as ever [one of my highlights was seeing Alexander Osterwalder (creator of the business model canvas) present].

Greg Hearn and I had landed ourselves on the program with the promise of: "Talking about art and drinking prosecco". ISPIM's culture deliberately generates long term connections and relationships, so we wanted to help invest in that. We took a group of 45 innovation managers from around the world strolling through the streets, wine in hand, discussing why the Renaissance might be relevant for thinking about innovation today. Here are some of the things we discussed:

An ecosystem that fosters creativity

Florence's wealth came off the back of sheep. In the 1200s, an order of monks relocated from the Cotswolds in England to the Tuscan hills to farm and import wool for manufacture into cloth. The wool was washed in the River Arno, made into yarn, and dyed with cinnabar (to make scarlet red) or the stamens of crocus flowers (to make bright yellow), then woven into the most valuable cloth in Europe. What was so special about Florence that they should produce the best woolen cloth? Why didn't the Cotswolds become such an economic hub? We discussed how innovation ecosystems evolve - was access to workers an issue; or was specialised skills or technology only available in Florence; when the wool could be traded, why couldn't the other components?

The Wool Guild became one of the most powerful in Florence and a major investor in the growth of the town. We looked at the construction of their new Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore (Our Lady of the Flowers), started in 1290 and which still isn't quite completed. In particular, we looked at Brunelleschi's Dome.

How contracts were won

Santa Maria Del Fiore is currently the 4th largest Cathedral in the world. It remains an iconic element of the Florence skyline. Built to show the power and skill and faith of the city, the dome is magnificent. In the early 1400s, when the main part of the Cathedral was almost complete, a competition went out to find an architect for the planned dome.

Any person who wanted to be considered for the job would need to submit a model of the design and be subject to an interview by the Cathedral head architect/ builder and representatives of the Wool Guild (the financiers). Over 20 people applied. 5 were taken seriously. Some were more connected with the Guild than others. Does this sound like a modern tendering process?

Filippo Brunelleschi won the contract in 1420. It was reported that his model, which took several months to build, was bigger than a modern 2 story house and able to take the entire approvals committee inside it to witness the structure of his proposed dome. Such a convincing display helped him enormously. It was 'proof' of future success.

In addition, Brunelleschi was the only entrant who came up with a solution that was novel enough for the committee. They did not want to build their flagship Cathedral with the familiar old Gothic style of architecture (think of Notre Dame in Paris) that Germany and France were using. Florence wanted to be seen as leaders in a new, lighter style. The dome would be built using no external or internal support structure, a feat never before achieved in living memory. It was, however, something that the ancient Romans could do...

Selling ideas with no proof

Building a model for a design is one thing, but making it succeed at scale is something entirely different. Most innovators will understand the experience of their MVP crashing into reality. Sometimes it's not a success. No one had ever built anything like what Brunelleschi was proposing. There are 4 new design components that go into his dome, plus the design and manufacture of a new style of crane that was precise enough for the job. [Da Vinci is often attributed for designing Brunelleschi's cranes, but his drawings were actually studies.] The Dome remains one of our biggest architectural mysteries - no one knows precisely how it is still standing, because even his innovations still don't add up to it working. He did something else, hidden in the structure, that we don't know.

This is the same era of building as the leaning tower of Pisa, which being built on a bad substrate was leaning from inception. Towers and roofs fell down all the time. Sometimes only a few years after completion, and with devastating consequences. Engineering mathematics like we have today didn't yet exist. There was no expert body of knowledge. Architecture was trial and error.

But Brunelleschi had lived by the Cathedral under construction his whole life. The dome was an impossible challenge he would have been very familiar with. Some of his experiences, including going to study the ancient ruins in Rome [investigating history to learn something new, naturally], gave him valuable insights that would inform his design.

Hiring across silos

Standing beside Giotto's Campanile, I asked the group a final question: What do you think Brunelleschi studied as his trade?" Very sensible answers came back: physics, construction, sculpture, mathematics, architecture. Our group of innovation managers were surprised to discover he was trained as a goldsmith. Think about the meta level of skills a goldsmith has: they understand the nature of construction, simply in miniature; as a clockmaker, physics theories were discovered [Brunelleschi built the first alarm clock - imagine how that informed his crane designs]. There was a format for training which meant experts from one area could move into another quite easily. For example, thanks to the broad skills learned in the Master Verrochio's studio, Leonardo Da Vinci moved easily from painting to sculpture to the technical mechanics that would help him design machines of war.

How could a goldsmith win a commission for the most challenging and prestigious architectural project of the day? Can you imagine this happening now? Is our university training too silo-ed and specialised? How can we better harness cross-disciplinary expertise to innovate?

After 23 bottles of prosecco and some fabulous conversations, we called it a day. If you have any opinions and would like to keep the conversation going below, you are very welcome to.

Both Greg and I would like to say thank you to the ISPIM team for the opportunity, and to everyone who joined the tour - we enjoyed your company very much indeed.