iCAT | Innovation Catalysts

Monday, 13 August 2012

iCAT is an online toolkit that helps organisations build eco-literacy, sustainability skills and innovation potential across their entire workforce.

iCAT helps leaders identify others most ready and able to lead.


TYF have started with the premise that when embarking on any tough journey, it’s good to know that the team you work with are prepared for the terrain ahead.


It’s relatively easy to spot some of the signs of being well prepared


We know that unpredictable events are increasing in scale and impact, and that new approaches will be needed to deal with them.

WEATHER ENERGY FOOD ECONOMY


In designing iCAT, TYF made a few assumptions:

★ It’s only reasonable to ask employees to innovate on things they know something about. QED the basics of sustainable change are mandatory for anyone expected to contribute.

★ When organisations want to make change happen, they are advised to work with their ‘pioneers’ and ‘early adopters’, and need to know who these are

★ Leaders can only pioneer change when they’re aware of the consequences of inaction or benefits of action. Literate leadership is a pre-requisite for transformation.

TYF developed iCAT to a) help leaders find the people who best understand how to link sustainability, resilience and change to issues facing their organisations today, b) highlight areas for development and immediate opportunity, c) provide a free 100 point training plan to develop all employees.


We think that it’s better to focus on what might happen rather than what’s easy to deal with.

We call this thinking R10, shorthand for the Real 10/10


We think that it’s good to be clear about the time scales that organisations focus on when thinking about their security.

Short term or Long term?


Short term security is based on compliance with rules, plans, process and the rules of the organisation


Long term security is based on reality, emergence, imagination and working within the rules of nature


Rules Resilience

Performance

Focus

10

legal minimum,poli2cal maximum

successfullyreach wronggoals

R10: theresilience 10/10

good inten2ons, low impact

1

we always have a choice about where

we focus our thoughts and ac2ons

TYF’s R10 framework helps people understand the impact that different approaches make. Compliance is usually set at too low a level to trigger transformation, and awareness by itself may only catalyse local change. Knowing what is needed, and how to make it happen, is key - this is what TYF call R10.


Rules Resilience

Performance

Focus of effort

BUILD

AWARENESS

AND IM

PACT

BUILD IM

PACT

10

1

✓

R10:Resilience

BUILD AWARENESS

compliance-‐drivenbox 2cking

✓

successfullyreach the wrong goals

knowing what’s needs doing, without the power to enable change

✓

The route that different individuals or organisations need to take to reach R10 outcomes depends on where they’re starting from. Businesses that are good at shipping products and goods need to be build awareness of alternative models and context. Organisations that have insight but low experience of making change happen need to build the skills and ‘how to’ of influence and change.


Finding R10 people means asking different questions such as:

❖ What risks and opportunities lie ahead?❖ Where is current sustainability best practice

in other sectors?❖ What ecosystem of partners is needed to

accelerate a shift towards resilience?❖ What can we do to speed up our evolution


iCAT comprises 100 questions designed by leading institutes, supported by agencies & NGOs


iCAT: four key steps

4TRANSFORMATIONCONVERSATIONS


Step 1a: quantitativequestions


1. What are the biggest sustainable innovations that you have seen in the last twelve months?

2. If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would be top of your sustainability to-do list?

Step 1b:qualitative questions


Step 2: results

Step 3: resources


E

D

C

B

A

64

iCAT Sustainable Innovation

iCAT generates personal innovationprofiles for individuals, teams and whole organisations, rated for four key areas of sustainability

F

G


Scores are created for individual areas of knowledge such as:

Food - security, justice, localisation, diet, nutrition and healthCarbon - energy balance, climate, mitigation, renewablesResources - closed loop, resource scarcity, products / servicesNature - ecosystem services, species loss, adaptation


Next Steps

PartnersCo-design the framing and desired outcomesBuilding the evidence base of need and benefitContent developmentLinking existing courses

StakeholdersBeta testing short versionsMapping response to using the frameworkStories of change, and how change worksBuilding networks for support and action


iCATInnovation Catalyst Programme


Documents

iCAT | Innovation Catalysts