Change Labs: Taking Bold Risks, But not Alone
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Citizens continue to demand government leadership on problems that are complex, multifaceted, and not solely within government jurisdiction: healthcare, the environment, poverty, transportation and crime, just to name a few. These are ongoing, intractable system-level problems that are complex: there is no procedure, no method, no approach, that can reliably, predictably, and repeatedly make progress on these areas. These complex problems are beyond the scope of any one actor — individual, community, company, or government—to solve. Collaboration on cross-sector solutions is necessary, but far from straightforward. Provincial and federal governments, in particular, face an identity crisis. The traits that served them well historically, and form the core of their approach—stable, reliable, consistent… in a word, bureaucratic — are now factors constraining their ability to adapt, collaborate and innovate on complex challenges that do not substantively respond to traditional approaches. Government needs to be able to innovate, which requires taking risk, something that runs contrary to an organization designed to reliably produce predicted outcomes and responsibly manage the public purse. This is especially true in a time of austerity, with a hyper-reactive media ready to jump on any mistake, and a distrusting public. Evolving to a new governance model is going to require a bridge. Change labs refer to a wide range of social technologies that allow parties to experiment and share risk in a new way. Labs are a place where multiple parties come together around a common problem, in a “space”, which temporarily disrupts existing power structures. Actors work together to expand their understanding of a problem, identify points of intervention, and prototype and iterate solutions in a safe, supportive environment where participants co-develop and share the risk associated with those solutions. This has the potential to unlock new pathways on problems, by creating space for government to partner with others in a different way.
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Change Labs: Taking Bold Risks, But not Alone
- 1. CHANGE LABS Taking Bold Risks, but not Alone
- 2. TEAM / Derek Alton . alton.derek@gmail.com Lisa Joy Trick . lisajoytrick@gmail.com Jonathan Glencross . jonathan.glencross@gmail.com Mike Klassen . mike.dw.klassen@gmail.com
- 3. credit: Jeff Barnum - jeffbarnum.com/visual/power-and-love
- 4. BIG vs SMALL
- 5. Gov as a… leader / enabler/ convener / co-creator
- 6. How can Canadian governments retain the strengths of traditional, risk-averse, consistent institutions... ...innovative, collaborative, and dynamic, finding new approaches to move the needle on the complex, system level problems we face? while becoming...
- 7. "I understand you're concerned about risk. There’s a giant Mack truck coming your way. It’s a big risk if you keep standing here. I have a tool, that will tell you which side of the fucking street to run to."
- 9. accountability / fairness / rules / due process What is the structure & culture that holds a civil servant in place when they want to move?
- 10. current state governance future state governance bureaucratic organizational silos porous networked ...while including the best from the past
- 11. current state governance future state governance bureaucratic organizational silos porous networked behavioral economics open data/gov labs
- 12. That senior decision makers are willing to invest a little bit of money... and time... is a symptom that they recognize the current governance model is not good enough. It can be improved, reinvented. Public managers need an ongoing process of questioning problems and approaches that’s not just about radical new ideas, but about questioning the current limits to implementing innovation. challenging the status quo... synthesis from our interview with Christian Bason ...with labs
- 13. current state future state bureaucratic organizational silos porous networked labs / public labs / social labs / social innovation labs / studios / institutes / r&d / idea factories / innovation units / a third space / do tanks /
- 14. WHAT IS A LAB? think > do “The lab is an experimental place where traditional thinking, intolerance to risk, silos and resource flows are deliberately interrupted, encouraging participants to look at problems in new ways.” - Policy Horizons Canada, Innovation Labs: Bridging Think Tanks and Do Tanks (2012)
- 15. Processes WHAT IS A CHANGE LAB? think > do Whole System Products & Services Design Science
- 16. convene >>> develop >>> prototype >>> iterate >>> scale impact Lab Sequencing WHAT IS A LAB? think > do research in, research out >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
- 17. A lab ecology collaborative social innovation open source & diy culture Peer 2 Peer economy collective impact civic tech In-Gov Labs & department level labs open data / big data Public Service Innovation Labs #PSILabs citizen-led labs public service renewal #policyinnovation #innovationpolitique lab facilitators process designers Design Labs User-centred #servicedesign Open Source democracy #opengov city + educational institution = lab behavioral insights #nudgeunit maker or fab labs open-source manufacturing
- 18. who we talked to… over 40 informants Joeri van den Steenhoven / Jeff Barnum / Jason Bade Eduardo Staszowski / Stefaan Verhulst / Noella Steinhauer / Zaid Hassan / Sean Geobey / Alex Himelfarb / Stephen Huddart / Allyson Hewitt / Christian Bason / Molly Harrington / Sunil Johal / Tim Draimin / Blair McMurren / Whitney Borowko / Mark Cabaj / Laura & Meagan / Don Booth / Jean Kunz / Frances Westley / Nicholas Charney / Monica Pohlmann / Suzanne Stein / Saralyn Hodgkin / InWithForward + more... lab founders… civic servants & field builders
- 19. who we read… over 30 docs & books Authors included: Christian Bason / Zaid Hassan / Geoff Mulgan Sarah Schulman / Lisa Torjman (Mars) / Stephen Huddart & Anil Patel / DESIS / Knight Foundation / Frances Westley / S Goebey & K Robinson / Public Policy Forum / Mars Solutions Lab / Roger L. Martin / Mowat Centre / Deloitte / Policy Horizons / Al Etmanski
- 20. Opportunity Context What is enabling labs in Canada? SIG Thought Leader tours Policy Horizon’s reports DM Committee on Innovation Austerity Blueprint 2020 Governor General innovation tour Destination 2020 Internal Champions
- 21. Niche Experimentation Alberta Canadian Lab initiatives Ottawa Nova Scotia CG Design (in Gov, cross departments) ESDC Change Lab Engage NS NS Gov Change Lab United Way Lab, Leading Boldly Toronto Mars Solutions Lab OCAD Lab Corridor Sustainability Transition Labs British Columbia InWithForward Burnaby
- 22. Knowledge Products Capitalizing on opportunities by increasing salience
- 23. “Users” Erica lab curious SUPPORTING THE INSTITUTIONAL ENTREPRENEURS Blair lab initiator Blair McMurren // Director, Social Innovation, Employment and Social Development Canada Erica Pohjola // Senior Policy Analyst, Health Canada
- 25. Typology & Fit-ness of Lab Processes PRODUCT 1 DESIGN LABS SOCIAL LABS<< PROCESSES >>
- 26. Exploring Awareness Applicability PRODUCT 2: Decision Making Aid What kinds of labs are there? How are they different from other social technologies? How do they work? What types of situations or problems are they meant to address?
- 27. Acting Design Implementation PRODUCT 3: Decision Making Aid What kind of partnerships, funding models and methods should I employ? How much will it cost? What kind of accountability and authority frameworks should be employed?
- 28. Implementation Getting the Screwdriver into the Hands of the Builders
- 29. 1. Create Knowledge Products 2. Test products with key people & ask for suggestions for the final form (PDF, website, slide deck, open source, etc) 3. Revise products based on feedback 4. Strategically deliver them to the right people, at the right time NEXT STEPS IMPLEMENTATIO N
- 30. CHANGE LABS / Taking Bold Risks, but not Alone THANK YOU
Editor's Notes
- JON
- JON
- Presenter: JON - be open, what does it do for you? Adam K. Power & Love - ”what do we do with this?”
- Presenter: ERICA
- Presenter: ERICA
- Presenter: ERICA later... Lisa: insert horns graphic finesse it, make it easier
- Presenter: ERICA
- Presenter: ERICA problems: Climate change; aging population (health, pension, hospice); housing/transit Illustration of mack truck and bureaucrat in the cement… but it’s not just gonna hit you… it’s going to hit everyone truck graphic - not solving wicked problems can’t flex the budget, adapt, Don Booth quote
- 1) Civic Servants - Stuck in the cement.... accountability, fairness, following rules and process… hard to be flexible. Structure and culture hold you in place even when you want to get outta the way built for situation vehicle
- Presenter: ERICA arrows/bridges animate in This is the bridge - casting a large net shifting the form of government
- Presenter: MIKE arrows/bridges animate in bridges: clusters of innovations shifting the form of government ...alternative innovations/options we considered. Two driving criteria: do they brdige us towards a new form of governance? do they address roots of complex/wicked problems?
- a lab process is built for a specific situation or challenge, helping you move forward on complex problems.
- Presenter: MIKE This is the bridge - casting a large net KEY POINT: if we are talking about an experimental space where tradiational thinking, silos, are deliberately interrupted - it can take many different forms! And everyone has a different name for it; and they are all unique. “A lab by any other name would smell as sweet”
- Pink: paradigms Blue: applications
- Traditional social technologies fail utterly on complex problems. How is a workshop going to influence climate change? Labs use a suite of carefully sequenced processes, to lead groups of people through a journey that changes their thinking… examples of some of the Convene: bring together stakeholders from different sectors, include end users. Develop: use design thinking, user journeys to deeply understand what is being experienced Prototype: be willing to take a half-formed idea, and test it before investing large resources Iteration: try, fail, change, repeat. KEY POINT: labs can very significantly in which phases they include - sometimes because of the expertise of their team/organization; sometimes because of the nature of the problem they are trying to solve. Quote from Joeri… trying to fiddle with the wires that drive/underly wicked problems.
- Presenter: MIKE Clean it up - make “labs” highlighed - adjacent possibles - interconnectivity, overlapping “doorways” - stepping stones, Our place: “we’re just here observing what’s happening” - Supply of skills - The potential for “social labs” increases with couple with other new fields - with the new generation of maker labs - creating an ecology
- Presenter: MIKE So what did we actually do? We asked the system “what’s going on here, and how can we enable/help?” First set: talk to the directors of labs themselves: Joeri, Jeff, Eduardo, Stefaan, Zaid, Christian… start to understand how they differ, how they work, why they are the way they are. Next set: talk to the ‘field builders’ within Canada - people like Frances, Allyson, Tim Draiman, Stephen Huddart - to get a pulse on where there is possibility in Canada. Third, most exciting set: ‘internal champions within government’ who are actively pursuing labs in their departments or ministries. Who we’ve talked to and how we’ve come to the understanding Checking knowledge gap, iterated
- Presenter: MIKE Who we’ve talked to and how we’ve come to the understanding Inteview
- Presenter: MIKE pink > clear opportunities (fractal image of allison replicated) blue > ?? opportunities (they are being framed that way at least) NOW: This is the TIME: the field is exploding, good timing, word is being co-opted? its a good time to create an interventions _ _ _ note for later: Our exploration of the labs space, a 2 (3 including field builders) pronged approach. Our assumptions about what we might learn/discover were ‘talk to experts and learn about what they’re doing’… but as we went we found out… ‘right here, right now there is major momentum in Canada’
- Presenter: JON
- Presenter: JON Products connect information - making it salient, framing it. * discuss the strategy to distribute these to the right people at the right time in the right way
- Presenter: JON Spectrum of Users/Audience - how
- Current stuff is long (books and LONG reports) Need brief, visual, updated - easily customized to their purposes (open source, multiple forms)
- Product #3: Typology + Fitness of labs
- A practical tool that helps people in government clarify their thinking and decisions about labs. It will focus on the kinds of questions civil servants are already asking. It will speak to the spectrum of awareness from those who are just starting to think about labs (I have heard about labs--what are they? Are they right for me? How would I know?) all the way through to those ready to implement (I am ready to implement a lab--how do I do it? What kind of people do I need? Will it work at my scale? What factors do I need to consider?) It will provide concise information to aid decision-making, as well as hyperlinks to resources for those seeking more detail. Phase 1: Awareness What is a lab? (various definitions that people are currently working with) What kinds of labs are there? How are they different from other social technologies? Phase 2: Applicability How do labs work? How do they relate to my work? Who do they involve? What types of situations or problems are they meant to address?
- Phase 3: Design What kind of lab is right for me? What domain or problem should the lab focus on? What kind of partnerships, funding models and methods should I employ? How much will it cost? How much staff does it require? Phase 4: Implementation How will it fit with existing institutional policy and decision making landscape? What kind of accountability and authority frameworks should be employed?
- JON