hands on social innovation: tools for tackling urban deprivation

The Young Foundation 2010

Hands-on social innovationTools for tackling urban

deprivation in Malmö &

Copenhagen

Workshops – May 12 & 13


About the Young Foundation• Named after Lord Michael Young, called “the world‟s

most successful entrepreneur of social enterprises”and co-author of Labour‟s 1945 election manifesto.

• Our core work is researching social needs and developing practical and innovative solutions to address them. We have a 55-year track record in innovation in areas including health, education, ageing, communities, and families.

• Responsible for starting scores of successful ventures and organisations including the Open University, NHS Direct and Which? Magazine.


“We want you to leave

inspired, with a set of

practical tools and

methods to apply to the

social problems you are

tackling every day”

Outcomes

What are we doing today?Session 1: What makes some places innovative?

Session 2: Inspiration• Introducing case studies and practical tools and methods for social innovation

Session 3: Thinking differently• Linking tools and methods to the social problems you are working on

Session 4: Action on social innovation• Putting ideas into practice


Session 1:

What makes places innovative?


The development of new ideas (products, services or models) to meet unmet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations.

Innovations that are both good for society and enhance society‟s capacity to act.

What is social innovation?

http://www.nzcsi.org/

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http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.csf.ceetrust.org/media/gallery/Euclid_Network_logo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.csf.ceetrust.org/article/thanks/&usg=__2IlANXCjQ7B33rmYEMBpGeXpYlk=&h=470&w=708&sz=52&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=by-AoEyY20x5WM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=140&prev=/images?q=euclid+network+logo&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&um=1

http://www.mind-lab.dk/

Why does it matter?

• About the survival of places

- unlike organisations or businesses, places do not get wound up

- essential to survival, adaptation, making use of opportunities

• About the survival of organisations

- an explanation for the decline in local government power over last 30 years?

• Failure to innovate has real consequences

• Little is known, much is assumed

- about the importance of money, institutions, freedom versus constraints?

Existing models don‟t work –too inflexible, unimaginative, fitted to past problems or locked into powerful interests

Plus an experimental social network analysis - to explore networks and relationships

UK case studies

Tower Hamlets: Youth

Services

Tower Hamlets was one of the first local

authorities in England to develop a

commissioning model for youth services

Involved letting a series of local and

thematic contracts to voluntary and

community sector organisations

Developed a Third Sector Strategy for the

entire Borough

South Tyneside: Social

Exclusion

A number of innovative projects to address

social exclusion

Council-led Neighbourhood Appraisal and

Action Planning project

Beacon-awarded financial inclusion

scheme

Knowsley: Secondary

Education

Secondary Transformation Scheme has

put in place a number of radical changes

Development of seven new learning

centres, which will replace all of the

Borough’s secondary schools by 2010

Highlands: Children’s

Services

Highland Council has radically reorganised

the delivery of Children’s Services in the

area (GIRFEC)

Created an effective joint working initiative

involving a number of key agencies.

Highlands selected as a Pathfinder for the

rest of Scotland

International case studiesLille, France:

Cultural Regeneration

Suffered greatly from

deindustrialisation

Repositioned image

Major programme of

regeneration

Pittsburgh, US:

Unemployment and

workforce development

Identified as a hub of socially

innovative activity

Strong foundation community

and universities

Renowned social

entrepreneursGouda, Netherlands:

Community cohesion

Ethnic tensions between

Moroccan and Dutch

communities

Grass roots projects and

municipality response

Portland:

mini case study

Innovation in civic

participation, urban planning

and development, transport,

environment


How places innovate• Every place can innovate although it‟s not easy

•Innovation comes from urgent need

•Need clarity about when to innovate; when to focus on improvement

•Don‟t believe common myths about need or obstacles

•Need to balance action & response in three critical dimensions


What we know• Innovation isn‟t a mystery

• Innovation isn‟t about wacky out of the box thinking

• It involves everyone – and anyone‟s insights can be useful

• But it is best done with the right methods, processes and skills –from questions through ideas to impact


Visualising a local innovation system

•Start small – persuade by example

•Don‟t wait for permission or funding or acceptance by big institutions just do it

•Always taking „no‟ as a question

... but how?

“Innovation lies in the grey space between agencies”

Audit Commission


An example from East London•London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

•De-industrialisation, high deprivation, resentment

•2006: far right (BNP) became 2nd

largest party, lost all seats in 2011

•Council, public sector, civil society, media all played key role

•Council set up „community communicators‟, staff asked to start dialogue on busses etc


^ inversion (peasants become bankers, patients become doctors)

t translation (airport management for hospitals, business planning for families)

x extension (extended schools, outreach)

+ addition (getting GPs to do a new test, libraries running speech therapy)

- subtraction (no frills, cutting targets, decluttering)

∫ integration (personal advisers, one stop shops, portals)

∂ differentiation (segmenting services by groups)

r random inputs (eg dictionaries, Yellow Pages)

Most successful innovations need a combination of these

Creative social design tools


Your task

• Identify a problem or issue you are working on that is proving difficult to solve

•Working in groups, use the language of ideation as a tool for thinking differently about how to approach


Session 2:Inspiration

End to end

innovation

The starting point is to ask the right questions, to diagnose and understand problems and

possibilities ....

1. prompts and triggersdiagnosis ethnography

political mandates

critical walking

failure demanddata and evidence

cost escalation

petitions

complaints choirs

new technology

user feedback

reviewing extremes, positive deviance

surveys and sousveys

needs mapping

new paradigms

visits

crisis

rights to time for ideas

campaigns


The methods we find most useful include • Ethnography – seeing things through

people‟s eyes

• Observation – seeing how do people use things, solve problems; what‟s out there in the field

• Systems diagnosis – what the underlying causes of problems

• Tools such as 12 economies, WARM

• Mapping contradictions and tensions: the biggest gaps between aspiration and achievement, between what services claim to do and what they do


Chaotic families, WiltshireProblem: Working with chaotic families costs too much and is only supported by public services

Method: Ethnography to gain new insights about family life in chaotic households to generate new ideas and approaches.

Also ran „Taskforce‟, carried out estate survey, ran service design sessions with locally based staff

Chaotic families: 5 big ideas1. Target additional support in areas with poor levels of

wellbeing and resilience

2. Develop opportunities for mutual aid within communities, promoting self help groups and community solutions

3. Reconfigure support services into area based working teams

4. Work with whole family not just individuals

5. Better differentiate the needs of chaotic families, to improve service offerings

We then move onto creative methods to multiply the options for

potential piloting....

2. proposals and ideas

inspiration Idea marketplaces

Hybridisation, recombination

Design tools

collaborative networks

User led design

A teams

brainstorms

creative meeting methods

Competitions & prizes

Artists in residenceCreativity methods

incubation

Living Labs

reflection

crowdsourcing

SI Camps

Skunkworks

Staged prizes

TRIZ


The End of Regeneration?

A new approach to

tackling entrenched

deprivation on small

housing estates


The three estates


Focus on life transitions•Stories and anecdotes about life on the estates

•Focus on important life transitions

•Unstructured conversations with residents

•Semi-structured interviews with agencies

•Informal group discussions


Social regeneration?

The importance of social and emotional support for regeneration

We then try to turn a shortlist of options into viable prototypes that can be tested in the real world ....

3. prototypes and teststrials beta testing

proof of concept

Randomised control trials

pathfinders

rapid prototyping

trailblazers

simulations

pilots

experimental zones

test marketing

open testing


The methods we find most useful include • Ideation events

• User journey mapping, critical walking

• SIX events and telepresences

• Task Forces, YouCan Kingston

• SI Camps

• ..... all drawing on existing evidence where it exists


•Problem:•Growing number of families in crsis in South Australia•Need to identify new preventative models instead of costly interventions at crisis point

•Solution:•TACSI/InWithFor - Radical Redesign Team•7 step redesign process including ethnography, service design & prototyping to develop


Resilience for gang members•Commissioned by police

•Worked with NGOs, local authority youth services

•Building on our work using CBT based methods in schools

When pilots and prototypes succeed – often with further adaptation –we then turn to how they can be

sustained, either as a public programme or as a venture ....

4. sustainingembedding

Professional development

policy commitment

Organisational forms (CICs etc)

grants for growth

loans, equity, quasi-equity

Commissioner commitment

Incremental improvement

Crowd-funding

Public share issues

formation

programme funding

Refining business models

formal validation


We use many tools at this stage, including: Examples

• measurement tools to assess whether projects really do work

• Tools for designing business plans

• Intensive business support


UpRising•Youth leadership programme, 19-25 year olds from diverse backgrounds

•East London and Birmingham

•Offers skill, knowledge, networks, confidence through training sessions, mentoring, visits, running local campaigns


Maslaha•Increasing understanding of Islam and helping Muslims navigate the dilhemmas of a secular society

•Producing health advice (diabetes, caring for your heart) , educational resources, publicising resources by Islamic scholars

5. scaling and growthdiffusion

Strategies for diffusion and adoption

licensing

Brands

franchises

investment for growth – loans, equity, quasi-equity

commissioning

federations

National policy directives

professional networks

growth through people takeover

policy and programme funding

consumer advocacy

Then, to scale an idea we use a range of methods. These focus in

particular on ....

And tools for thinking about appropriate organisational models (franchises, licenses, federations,

organisational growth, takeover &c) and what these require in terms of

governance, finance and culture

Finally we have developed methods for thinking about genuinely

systemic change, which links the diagnoses and prompts to

understanding of how many different kinds of change can be

brought together ...

6. systemic changenew mentalities

regulation

recalibrated markets

changed scripts whole system demonstrators

technical diffusion through supply chains

fast colleges

finance for outcomes

changed power relationships

new metrics

lawcoalitions for change


Studio Schools•New model of state school for 14-19 year olds

•Bold new approach to learning involving enterprises

•Employability and enterprise skills, personalised curriculum, practical learning, real work, students of all abilities, all small schools

•31 studio schools in development


Session 3:Thinking differently


1 Prompts

2 Proposals

3 Prototypes

4 Sustaining

5 Scaling

6 Systemic change

Disengaged communities, poor education, high levels of disadvantage

Consensus about need for new approach

Data/studies on social need

External inspiration, social design principles, co-design solutions with participants

Learn from success of environmental sustainability programmes

Developing Malmö‟sinnovationstory


Are we asking the right questions?

1. What is the problem?

2. Do we understand the

critical causes and

drivers?


Predictable mistakes

•Improvement not innovation

•Adoption not adaption

•Policy not leadership and action

•Isolation not collaboration


What is your role?Innovation comes from connecting:

bees: small groups, individuals,

social entrepreneurs with insight and ideas

trees: big organisations -

governments, companies, foundations with power and money


Useful questions•What is the problem I am working to address?

•What are the underlying drivers and causes of the problem?

•What do I know about the people involved?

•What tools and approaches should I be using?

•Who can I collaborate with to share ideas/resources?

•What are the constraints and how can I overcome them?


Your task•Review your challenge from the morning session. Do you want to change groups or continue with the same conversation?

•Working in groups, use your social innovation toolkit to think about new approaches & practical steps to addressing your problem

•What is the one practical action you will take away from the workshop?


Session 4:Action on social innovation


Action on social innovation

•What is the one practical action you will take away from the workshop?

•Who will you/do you need to collaborate with?


Useful resources for social innovators

The Global Innovation Academy Vision

A radically new model of learning to serve a global field of practitioners, needing constant real-time learning, held together by a shared knowledge platform gathering together tools, case studies and models.

• The fully mature version of the Academy would be:

– active across the globe,

–working with thousands of social innovators every year,

–connecting a burgeoning alumni network

–making available a wealth of materials documenting social innovation methods and examples

–sharing the most effective and cutting edge developments in sustainable social innovation.

• This is a new approach to learning will help government, the social sector and industry learn more quickly from one another to solve social challenges.

The Global Academy will be at the heart of the movement to make

social innovation as well-supported, funded, and grounded in evidence as scientific, medical

and commercial innovation.

Objective: To build the skills and capacity needed for fast and effective innovation to meet social needs.

1. Connecting learners teachers

For further information please contact:

[email protected]

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hands on social innovation: tools for tackling urban deprivation

Documents

young foundation

social innovationsession

lord michael young

unmet social needs

creative social design

places innovative

survival of places

local innovation systemslide