In late 2012, we designed the UN’s annual global conference on innovation in the humanitarian sector. Archimedes’ simple principle of leverage was used to deconstruct the challenge, demystify the idea of innovation, and guide the conversation to actionable outcomes.

A special emphasis was placed on seeking different voices with non-Western backgrounds and perspectives, and policy-makers with strong field experience. We used our extensive network of such people, including nationals from Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and other countries where a top-down approach is often imposed. The net was widened further to include ‘outsiders’ who might encourage the group to push the boundaries beyond the conventional space in which we tend to operate. Representatives of leading universities were included in this group, such as UC-Berkeley, Harvard, and Singularity.