Introductory Text

Abstract
This paper reframes innovation practice within large multinational corporations through a merged lens of systems theory with mythology. There are several reasons for this reframing: First: the structure of innovation in a large corporation is theoretically and practically the same as the structure of heroism across mythology – the monomyth -- as outlined in Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. In both cases, the Hero must escape his/her current system, enter into, create and/or operate within another, and eventually establish a resolution with the old system. Second, both journeys happen within the greater context of extant social structures that infuse the respective systems. Third, societies and corporations are usefully and revealingly well described as complex adaptive systems, whereby the innovation applies tension to the stability & balance (homeostasis) of the extant, often profitable, reigning (corporate) system. The monomyth illuminates the stages of the hero’s journey and the resources needed at each stage, respectively; from our work and experiences we can re-interpret these resources in the context of systems theory for today’s corporate environment. Based on three years of experience with a business unit tasked with disruptive innovation (though implicitly), we examine the nature of Christensen’s notion of innovation in the joined context of complex adaptive systems and mythology. We offer an early explanation for why disruptive innovation is so hard -- it threatens the existing system, it does not account for the distribution of power in the social structure and innovators fail to secure the appropriate resources that are only apparent by considering the context of systems and social structures. We propose that for disruptive innovation to be more probable, it must become an explicitly designed part of the system.

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