Prototyping Global Innovation Exchange

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Prototypes

Workshop #1‍

By focusing on human-centered, systems-oriented design and identifying the desired impact at increasing levels of scale, from the personal to global, participants were able to identify common goals. Aligning around shared goals, rather than starting with solutions, allowed participants to unify their disparate approaches around a collective "true North", catalyzing cross-disciplinary innovation. To facilitate this process, we ran a workshop drawing upon Frog Design’s “Ripple Effect” method from their Collective Action Toolkit.  

Workshop #2

‍By remixing Frog Design's “Knowledge Hunt,” we designed a process in which participants identified perceived barriers to innovation in their own work and wrote them on a wall; other participants responded in turn by writing solutions, ideas, resources, and contact info on the same wall. In doing so, we were able to develop not only a web of knowledge but also a network of mutual support and plant seeds for future innovation exchange. 

Glimpse our process in the video below:

Attendee Reflections

Identify Goals

Drawing on information gleaned from a goal sharing session with peers from across the globe, operating in a different government system, Shomi Kim of Global Green Growth Institute shared insight about how to achieve goals within her system: 

“We started with a problem statement, but instead of being given the assignment to talk about the solution, we were asked to talk about the impact that we want to create, which is objective: objectives of projects, objectives of the policy that we want to create, or people that we are working for. We realized is that we want to create shared objective or shared impact.”

Share barriers to innovation

During the discussion, participants reported that the reflection process alone was helpful as they identified barriers inhibiting their work. One attendee spoke about this process during the salon held at the New School in New York. She stated:

“I think just the concrete problem identification was exciting and revelatory. If there were concrete, simple-language problems, you would create a stronger community of folks across government agencies. [There are people] hiding out and thinking they are trying to change things by themselves.  Maybe they have even been called in to do so but have not been called the innovation department.”

During the second Seoul workshop, one participant said:

“Whatever problem you're having, a hundred thousand other people have that same problem somewhere in the world. A lot of them have very, very good advice. So learn from other people who have the same challenges. Even if you feel alone in a challenge, you're not. And it's just a matter of excavating your peers and friends that can help you work through that.”

Share Knowledge and Innovative Solutions

During a post-lab interview, Diana Won MYSC, Korea, stated,

“Whether you’re a government official, a shopkeeper, or just a citizen, if you start at the same level, you can exchange different ideas that you might not know to exist.” In other words, by uniting a diverse group of innovators around a shared question, unimagined solutions may arise from people who would not have otherwise been asked. She continued, “It was exciting to see so many different stakeholders come to the table today, from organizations from every world region. Thinking about solutions from other parts of the world and trying to think about what we can do together. The government innovation community should discuss how we can create bridges across regions and cultures and think about innovation more broadly than just within one city.”

Another participant, Tom Symons from NESTA, UK, said:

“It was fascinating to gather with other people interested in similar related issues of government innovation. To start thinking about how we can solve some of the more challenging and entrenched problems about how you can support and incentivize innovation within government systems. It’s fascinating perspectives from around the world.” 

After the workshop in Seoul an attendee shared:

“It's important not to be restrictive, and to be open to different ideas. I think the most important part is just making sure to bring different people to the table, but also making sure that everyone is talking at the same level and that there aren't those kinds of power dynamics that come into play, because once you can understand how someone else lives I think you can create more innovations across sectors as well.”

Many participants valued the innovation exchange for its capacity to bring people together to create diverse innovation ecosystems. The shared experience has the power to catalyze the innovation process within each participant’s home organization while simultaneously promoting international cooperation. Lucia Caistor from Social Life, UK, stated:

“It's nice to see that many of these challenges are universal. It's great to have this space to learn how things are done in a completely different context. And that's incredible, and I would love it if we could continue to do that.”