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SOCIAL INNOVATION: BETWEEN A BUTTERFLY & BLUEPRINT

FCSS | November 13, 2014

Mark Cabaj

9540-145 Street Edmonton, Alberta, CA

T5N 2W8

P: 780-451-8984

F: 780-447-4246 E: Mark@here2there.ca

1989 Fall of Berlin Wall

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2002 Tamarack Institute

2006 2006

Getting to Maybe

• A novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, and/or just than present responses.

• It may be positive or negative, large or small, fleeting or durable.

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What is the case for social innovation?

What is the case against social innovation?

The Performance Loop

(The S Curve)

The Renewal Loop

(Backward Loop)

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neutral zone

manage new

thinking

letting go develop &

adapt

birth

Creative Leadership: * Messy * Uncertain*

First hand insights * Outside ideas * Multiple

Perspectives * Flat structure & process *

Probes & Little Experiments * Options

Entrepreneurial Leadership: Generalists

*Roles * Adaptive structure and process * Prototypes & Pilot Projects * Variation * Lag

times Flexible funding * Flexible rules *

Tolerance for Risk * Dead ends * Emerging

Practice

Productivity Leadership: Efficiency * Certainty *

Stability * Conservation * Hierarchical structure & process * Rules, Policies & Procedures *

Standardization * Specialists * Fast Returns *

Low Risk Tolerance

Values-Based Leadership: Unraveling * Chaotic *

Loss, Anger, Blame, Conflict * Little structure or process * Reflection * Relationships * Essence *

Values * Principles * New Energy & Urgency

expand

possibilities

& buy-in

place

bets

refine

conserve

looking

forward

declining

results

• Best Practice is anti-innovation

• A social innovation is not necessarily

good

• Too much social innovation can be

overwhelming

• All solutions have a half-life

Emerging Methods for Social Innovation:

Butterfly (Improvisation)

Blueprints (Detailed Planning)

Prototyping

Positive Deviance

Adapting Models

From Elsewhere

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#1: Prototyping

What was your greatest failure?

What made it

great?

Car Seat Usage in Dallas Texas

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Patient Friendly Health Services

Brighton, UK

Collaborative Granting Model Prairie City

The Approach

• A Prototype: Greek for ‘primitive form’; refers to an early sample or model that is developed in order to test one or more features of a new product, program or service.

• Prototyping: a systematic process of building successive prototypes in order to learn more about a challenge being addressed and/or promising solutions that deserve further investment.

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The Reasons

1. Inexpensive

2. Fast

3. Low Risk

4. Learning Rich

5. Experimental

The Testing

1. Desirability – is it effective and do people support it?

2. Feasibility – do we have the capacity to do it?

3. Viability – can our organizations and systems sustain this practice?

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Some Principles

1. Insight & Empathy

2. User-Centric

3. Clear intent, rough ideas

4. Fail Fast, Fail Often

5. Rapid Feedback

6. Data-driven decisions

Success

• New learning about nature of an challenge and what does (not) work

• Determining an idea is worth more investment

Failure

Failure

• Learning's not reflected on and recorded for future use

• Moving on with an idea or prototype when the learning's are not there to support this progress.

Resources

Prototyping Framework

(www.nesta.org.uk/publications/prototyping-framework)

Prototyping in the Public Services

(www.nesta.org.uk/publications/prototyping-public-services)

Change by Design (www.designthinking.ideo.com/)

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#2: Adopt & Adapt Practices to Different Contexts

Replicating Micro-Lending in North America & Europe

context +

mechanism =

outcome

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Non-Context Sensitive Interventions

Context Sensitive Intervention

Steps

1. Determine the extent to which the model is context-sensitive

2. If the model is context-sensitive:

i. Determine its minimum specifications and core principles.

ii. Learn about local contexts welcome diverse scenario, and develop flexible repertoire of solutions for local needs.

iii. Experiment with small scale adaptation of model, focusing on strong feedback loop.

iv. Surface and address barriers, adapt model over time, scaling investment appropriately.

Mentoring

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Resources

Stanford Social Innovation Review (See Bradach)

Developmental Evaluation

(Section on replicating models)

Replicating Social Programs, UNESCO

(http://www.unesco.org/most/dsp18.htm)

#3: Positive Deviance

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The Approach

• In every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.

• The Positive Deviance approach is an asset-based, problem-solving, and community-driven approach that enables the community to discover these successful behaviors and strategies and develop a plan of action to promote their adoption by others.

The Question

What enables some members of the

community

(the “Positive Deviants”)

to find better solutions to pervasive problems than their neighbors

who have access to the same resources?

Define

• Define the problem, its perceived causes and related current practices (situation analysis)

• Define what a successful outcome would look like (described

as a behavioral or status outcome)

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• Determine if there are any individuals or entities in community who ALREADY exhibit desired behavior or status (PD identification)

• Discover uncommon practices/behaviors enabling the PDs to outperform/find better solutions to the problem than others in their “community”

• Design and implement intervention enabling others in “community” to access and PRACTICE new behaviors (focus on “doing” rather than transfer of knowledge)

D

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TRADITIONAL VS POSITIVE DEVIANCE APPROACH

TRADITIONAL Externally Fueled (by “experts” or

internal authority) Top-down, Outside-in Deficit Based “What’s wrong here?” Begins with analysis of underlying

causes of PROBLEM Solution Space limited by perceived

problem parameters Triggers Immune System “defense

response”

POSITIVE DEVIANCE Internally Fueled (by “people like us”,

same culture and resources) Down-up, Inside-out Asset Based “What’s right here?” Begins with analysis of demonstrably

successful SOLUTIONS Solution Space enlarged through

discovery of actual parameters Bypasses Immune System (solution

shares same “DNA” as host)

PD Examples

Nutrition

HIV/Aids

Child Care

Gangs

Sex Trade

Education

Sales Industry

Hospital Care

Clairton School District

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Resources

The Power of Positive Deviance

Book, Webpage, Field Guide

(www.powerofpositivedeviance.com)

The Positive Deviance Initiative

(www.positivedeviance.org/)

The Canadian Positive Deviance Initiative (www.positivedeviance.ca)

Discussion

• Share an example of ``lone nut`` (innovator) or early follower (early adapter) in our community.

Social Innovation in Canada: A Great Decade

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Unfinished Business

Healthy Societies &

Communities Self-Correct

What is most alive for you

from this presentation?