Social Innovation Labs
What are social innovation labs?
A Social Innovation Lab is first and foremost a way to address complex challenges, which cannot be solved by linear strategic planning. It is anchored in a quest (challenge), a topic of systemic relevance as for example those contained in the Sustainable Development Goals. It brings together a diversity of people that are stakeholders from all sectors or in other ways have things to contribute, around the shared intention or guiding question contained in the endeavour. A Social Lab offers space and time to create an in-depth, holistic (body, mind, soul) understanding of the root causes and hold space for realignments. The room opens for individual (challenging beliefs, seeing beyond habits and assumptions, learn new ways of being) as well as collective transformation (becoming present together, surface collective knowledge). The process allows for experimentation, prototyping and fast learning cycles, opening space to fail and try again. Where we cultivate the ability of not knowing and hold the question, allowing things to emerge. It creates a space to train together how to become and be a conscious living system; a learning, sharing cycling organism. The outcome is prototype solutions that go through a continuous iteration of testing in the real world, collecting data for further refinement and testing again.
We understand and use Social Innovation Labs, as a process inspired by Zaid Hassan’s understanding of Social Laboratories by combining them with the U-journey after MIT’s Theory U, Art of Hosting as well as integrating diverse methods, tools, practices along the way (check out our toolbox). It is a format, a process, but also a type of strategic response to complex systemic challenges. Solutions coming out of this process are meant to tackle the root causes of a challenge and have a systemic impact, rather than fighting symptoms.
In short, Social Innovation Labs are:
Social: bringing together stakeholders from all sectors to represent a diversity of perspectives is key
Experimental: working with prototyping and sustained efforts with the right to fail and try again distinguishes them from a project-based approach
Systemic: the solutions that come out of it are meant to tackle the root causes of the challenge and have systemic impact, rather than fight the symptoms.
Throughout our work, we added a fourth component which speaks to the interconnectedness of the inner and the outer dimension of doing this Work:
Personal: in order to bring about outer change we first need to practice the interior condition that we want to bring to the world, in order to not unconsciously reinforce the patterns that have created the challenges in the first place.
They can produce different kinds of results or capital:
Intellectual: new insights and knowledge
Physical: prototypes that are new infrastructure, products or services
Human: new capacities, skills and mindsets
Social: increased trust and grounds for future collaborations in the system
Natural: impact on the natural environment, regaining of land or biodiversity
Financial: cash flows based on any of the above and the cost of not addressing the challenge
Our connection with the method
Our Practitioners Circle and some of its members have been part of trainings and have hands-on experience of having facilitated Social Innovation Labs.
In our Catalyst Lab, participants learn how to apply systemic change methods in their own area, how to engage, bring together and work with multiple stakeholders around societal challenges, and how to launch their own Social Innovation Lab or other systemic change initiative.
We have offered 2 Social Innovation Labs teaser trainings in 2019 and 2020.
New trainings will be announced soon. Reach out to us if you are interested in a training.
Toolbox & articles
Find descriptions of tools and our experiences with them in our open-source toolbox:
Practice examples and personal experiences:
Toolbox entries:
Links
http://www.grovearchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Social-Labs-Fieldbook-D12.pdf