SAN FRANCISCO — Sasha Dichter, chief innovation officer at Acumen, believes the most useful definition of innovation is what is described as the “adjacent possible” and it is one that would-be innovators in the development sector should pay close attention to.
That theory holds that the best ideas tend to come from a recycling and combining of the possibilities that are already available at any moment in time. Consider the printing press, an example of adjacent possible innovation described in the bestselling book “Where Good Ideas Come From.” Each of the elements of the printing press were developed long before, and it was adapted from a screw press, which was being used for wine.
At Acumen, a nonprofit that invests in companies that are responding to problems of poverty, Dichter works with what he describes as an adjacent possibility set: A commitment to tackling poverty, proximity to the problem, and understanding of social impact.