Social Innovation Generation Workshop An Introduction to Social Innovation: Complexity and Scale

1. Social Innovation Generation WorkshopAn Introduction to Social Innovation: Complexity and Scale Presenter: Ola Tjornbo

2. Social Innovation “ Social innovation is an initiative, product, process or program that profoundly changes the basic routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs of any social system. Successful social innovations have durability and broad impact. While social innovation has recognizable stages and phases, achieving durability and scale is a dynamic process that requires both emergence of opportunity and deliberate agency, and a connection between the two.”

3. Lecture 1: The Stacey Matrix Seeing problems through a complexity lens Understanding the broader context or the environment of a problem So that we will know how to respond to that problem appropriately

4. What is a system? • is made up of interrelating, interdependent parts • behavior does not depend on what each part is doing but on how each part is interacting with the rest • fits with a larger system of which it is a part • is non-obvious: what we call the parts and their relationship is fundamentally a matter of perspective and purpose. 4

7. Types of systems • Simple • Complicated • Complex

8. Types of IssuesDegree of Uncertainty/ Degree of Agreement Matrix Far from Agreement Close to Far from Certainty Close to

9. Simple Complicated Complex Following a Recipe A Rocket to the Moon Raising a Child • The recipe is essential • Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts • No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success • Recipes produce standard products • Certainty of same results every time

10. Simple Far from Agreement Simple Plan, control Close to Far from Certainty Close to

11. Simple Complicated Complex Following a RecipeWriting a ThesisRaising a Child • Methods are critical and necessary • Uncertainty about the problem • High level of expertise in many specialized fields + coordination • Research projects have critical similarities • Success in one project increases chances of future success • The recipe is essential • Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts • No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success • Recipes produce standard products • Certainty of same results every time

12. Complicated Far from Socially Complicated Build relationships, create common ground Agreement Simple Plan, control Technically Complicated Experiment, coordinate expertise Close to Far from Certainty Close to

13. Simple Complicated Complex Following a Recipe A Rocket to the Moon Raising a Child • Formulae have only a limited application • Raising one child gives no assurance of success with the next • Expertise can help but is not sufficient; relationships are key • Every child is unique • Uncertainty of outcome remains • The recipe is essential • Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts • No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success • Recipes produce standard products • Certainty of same results every time Sending one rocket increases assurance that next will be ok High level of expertise in many specialized fields + coordination Rockets similar in critical ways High degree of certainty of outcome

14. Most Intractable Social Problems Are In the Zone of Complexity Chaos Massive Avoidance Far from Socially Complicated Build relationships, create common ground Zone of Complexity Agreement Technically Complicated Experiment, coordinate expertise Simple Plan, control Close to Far from Certainty Close to

15. Lecture 2: The Scale Tool A way of parsing complex problems in order to find opportunities for intervention and to anticipate obstacles Different strategies appropriate to the dynamics characteristic of different scales

16. Scales Micro – the smallest relevant scale Meso – the scale in between micro and macro Macro – the largest relevant scale

17. Photo: Albert Fuller Graves

18. Photo: Wikipedia

19. Photo: NOAA

20. Federal government, long-term cultural changes, global economic trends, demographic trends, national mental health policy Macro: Meso: Micro: Provincial government, provincial mental health funding and policy, financial institutions, migration, local economic conditions Local government employees, interactions between different population groups, local businesses, community organizations

21. PLAN: Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network&RDSP: The Registered Disability Savings Plan

22. PLAN’S Sustainability Objectives • Embed full citizen perspective in structures and institutions • Change cultural consciousness from needs and inability to contribution and participation

23. Macro: Meso: Micro:

24. Social Innovation “ Social innovation is an initiative, product, process or program that profoundly changes the basic routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs of any social system. Successful social innovations have durability and broad impact. While social innovation has recognizable stages and phases, achieving durability and scale is a dynamic process that requires both emergence of opportunity and deliberate agency, and a connection between the two.”

25. Lecture 3: Social Innovation