Rethink, repurpose or reinvent?

In my last post, I described how we can move from social innovation to systemic innovation, being able to understand the system the issue you’re tackling sits within and how you want to affect change within it. But should we be even more ambitious and transform the dynamics of the system altogether?

How about looking at “behavioural scripts” that we encounter in everyday life? Used as an effective way to build new language, social, and activity routines for adults and children with developmental disabilities, could they also be used to tackle systemic issues?

If campaigners on disability rights could develop a social model that’s transformed the way we see the relationship between public services and its users, if fast food chains were able to change the way we consume food, if IKEA were able to change the way people sell products, what behavioural scripts would you create to change the way people see the issue you’re passionate about?

Here are a few tips:

1. How can you work out what is the system/s the issue you’re trying to tackle is part of?

Get together with people with different perspectives to visualise the issues.

2. What are the methods that can help you work out what shapes the system you’re working on?

Use a model like @valuesandframes to discover what values shape the system

Use a framework like Social Value Commissioning to develop a theory of change which maps out how you see change taking place. 

3. What are the innovative methods that can help you bring your idea to life and evaluate its impact?

Use a process like the Open Workshop to work out what methods can help you enact this change.

4. What is the infrastructure that can help you support & distribute your idea? 

Look at platforms that help mobilise resources like Civic Crowd and take part in discussions to help shape new infrastructure that could help reward effort within your venture like the Economy App by @mattjahu.

5. How can you collaborate with others involved in the system you’re working to change? 

Look at how the @unmonastery is helping build infrastructure with local communities or how the Lambeth Cooperative is using theory of change to understand where and how to incubate systemic innovation.

6. What are the practices you need to change within yourself or the group of people involved in developing your idea to model the changes you wish to see 

Consider the different aspects needed to redesign local systems, based on learning from @tessybritton at Social Spaces

7. How do you move from measuring social impact to that of social value?

“Every social organisation has a social value story to tell, and it is those who do so with imagination, passion and creativity who will be able to articulate to funders, stakeholder and clients their story in the most compelling ways” argues @dompotter.

Look at how the Compendium on the Civic Economy by @infostructure00 visualises the social impact of the stories it has featured, on the places & people the individual ventures interacted with, the challenges they pose on the wider system. 

That’s why we want the sessions you want to run to stoke people’s imagination, passion and creativity on how we can deliver social value on systemic issues!