Disclose: Innovation Design Task 2

Disclosure is a continuation of the Pattern Recognition activity that ended the Engage task. But in this new task of Disclosure, the critical activity of uncovering is only half of what we seek to discover.

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What is unique about the Disclosure is that it splits into two distinct parallel paths. One path focuses on a critical uncovering of the implicit logic of current practices, and the other path focuses on discovering and exploring unintentional possibilities. It is these two wholly distinct parallel activities that will allow for disruptive innovation to emerge in the next task: Deviation. 

4. Defining: By critically interrogating the scope, history, and implicit logic of one’s question during the task of Engage,  one is now prepared to define the larger “matter of concern”: regarding your question as simply one historically contingent approach. Grasping that you're concerned with something bigger than a question or framework, allows you to release yourself from your narrow focus on the question, problems and solutions— and ultimately open yourself up to the possibility that there is a whole other way of being alive that might not even contain this question, issue or problem. This activity could be equivalently referred to as “releasement”.

5. Uncovering: Innovation cannot begin to get novel if it stops at uncovering a history or discovering trends, it needs to go deeper. What is the framework, paradigm or world that gives rise to a way of being alive that evolves these issues, questions, problems and practices? It is only when this question is answered at an ontological level that one can begin to innovate in a profound manner. 

We do this because we know that other worlds are possible and the goal of innovation is the realization of another world.

‍6. Exploration (towards the unintended): Parallel to uncovering the underlying logics of your issue/question, you need to discover unintended possibilities within the objects, environments, habits and frameworks entangled with your broad area of interest (which you discovered and joined in during the Emerge task). These unintended possibilities are what will drive your disruptive innovation experiments in the next task of innovation: Deviate.