“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Our vision is that organisations in Geneva and beyond leverage their full potential to use innovation to respond to societal needs by transforming their employees into intrapreneurial leaders, connected to a wider community of changemakers and disruptors that are paving the way for the new economy.

Beim Blick auf die Catalyst Lab Cohort Edition 2 von Collaboratio Helvetica ist mir Celia sofort ins Auge gefallen. Zum einen, weil mich der Satz «Suche Fern. Finde Nah.» gleich in den Bann gezogen hat. Als Reisevogel bin ich viel umhergekommen – und je länger ich unterwegs war und je mehr fremde Kulturen ich gesehen habe, desto stärker wuchs bei mir das Bewusstsein für die Schönheit unserer Breitengrade, den Reichtum unserer Traditionen und meine eigenen (deutschen) Wurzeln.

The 3D mapping exercise aims to help unveil the multifaceted aspects of the system in which the Catalysts aim to achieve change. Working with my hands helped me to unearth aspects my mind alone did not “see”. Working in parallel with somebody else revealed interconnections within the Catalyst community.

My original goal when I joined the Catalyst Lab was to improve the work I do in helping the Swiss economy become more sustainable.

Having never founded my own NGO or worked in anything other than a commercially oriented company, I’m somewhat an outlier in this year’s Catalyst Lab. As collaboratio helvetica’s mission is to fundamentally change how we work together I was often asked what the difference is between working my day job and supporting the Catalyst Lab team in my communications role. Well then, let’s try to find out.

Der Migros-Pionierfonds unterstützt innovative Ideen mit Geld und Beratung.

Hanna und Nils Landolt haben vier Kinder. Und bald eine eigene Schule. Im Glarner Dorf Mollis wollen sie das Schweizer Bildungssystem auf den Kopf stellen – und damit die Volksschule inspirieren.

More and more people agree that we need to work towards systemic change. But how can we define it, and where to begin? Systemic change can be understood as a change in how a system operates from the inside out. Besides deep shifts in the underlying paradigm(s), this includes changes in the Rules, Roles, Relationships and Resources that govern a given system (USAID, 2016).

I like to start with a story that impressed me when hearing it the first time, and I am still inspired when re-watching the video footage. It gave me a metaphor and scientific “evidence” for how subtleties can have huge and unpredictable ripple effects:

Systemic thinking is “like a language for describing and understanding, the forces and interrelationships that shape the behaviour of systems” (see more here: Fifth Discipline Fieldbook). With this approach it is possible to get away from the - often only short-term effective - treatment of symptoms and to concentrate on the deeper causes, which are mostly inherent to a system (see also the chapter on Root Causes and the Iceberg Model).

Along my participation in the Catalyst Lab, I have experienced an inner shift in the past months. The Catalyst Lab journey has provided me with valuable insights, a new understanding of my role in my system and deep connections with the most inspiring people. In one of the last modules one of the Catalysts mirrored back to me how he perceived me at the start of the journey and now. It resonated a lot and his correct assumption that I became more open towards other views and in some way more vulnerable allowed me to get into action and activate my ecosystem.

What we usually say is that Radical Collaboration is both a toolset and a mindset. We can practice being together, in relationships with one another and the collective both on a practical level as well as on a more energetic and emotional level. To practice collaboration takes a lifetime to master. In this lifelong practice, we see the Catalyst Lab as a boot camp. In order to bring upon systemic change in the world, improving and deepening your relationships is a key skill and is, unfortunately, often underestimated and practised insufficiently.

Prototyping refers to building or creating a small but essential part of a larger project in order to see if it works as envisioned. It is rooted in ‘doing’ - development, testing, evaluating, reiterating. In the original framework of Theory U, it is the definitive step into concrete action, while staying closely connected to the deep mindset shift that happened in the previous steps of the Catalyst Lab journey and to the source of our intention.

In order to tackle the complex societal challenges we are facing, for instance around topics of climate change, migration, health etc., we need to come together across sectors and organisations and learn new ways of collaborating with each other, engage in meaningful conversations that go beyond polarization, learn from each other, and find new ways forward together. The challenges we are facing are too multilayered and complex to be addressed in a meaningful way just by one organisation or even one sector.

In multi-stakeholder workshops relevant stakeholders from a specific system (for example stakeholders linked to the healthcare system) come together around a specific calling question and topic to explore it in depth together, learn more about different perspectives and experiences, get a deeper understanding of the topic and identify leverage points for change. Ideally multi-stakeholder workshops take place as a series of events, where the same group comes together several times to explore relevant questions.

• a laboratory: a container of social experiments with intensive, experimental interventions

• a strategy for addressing complex ground-breaking social challenges on a systemic level.

• a space for multi-disciplinary collaboration, bringing together people from across the system aimed at key leverage points

• Social Labs consist of a team, a process and space(s) supporting social innovation and experimentation.

At collaboratio helvetica we believe in catalysing change by bringing people together and sharing an inner and outer exploratory journey, as a necessary preparation for collective action. What happens in such a collective space, like a Social Innovation Lab?

What takes place in such spaces, including the Catalyst Lab itself, is individual and collective learning. But what is learning, and how can we create and cultivate an environment where it can take place?

To achieve system change - a large-scale change that will affect everyone - funding the social innovation process itself effectively is key. Such an innovation process requires cross-sector collaborations that shift the focus from fighting the symptoms to addressing the root causes. Given the urgency for systemic change, foundations have been exploring new effective funding mechanisms that support system change.

"Wir brauchen einen Wandel - aber wie geht das?". Viktoria Waldhäusl im Gespräch mit Nora Wilhelm, Young Leader. Wenn es heißt, in der Jugend läge die Hoffnung, dann ist die 28-jährige Schweizerin Nora Wilhelm der Beweis dafür, dass das stimmt. Inmitten der Hoffnungslosigkeit, bestehend aus Klimawandel und wachsenden ökonomischen Ungleichheiten, zeigt sie neue Wege auf, um sich den komplexen Problemen stellen zu können.

Premier rendez-vous: Pour la première fois, Nina "Naatya" Graifemberg, active dans l'esports suisse et gameuse, rencontre Nora Wilhelm, co-fondatrice de collaboratio helvetica.