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What exactly is Social Innovation?

January 27th, 2011 · Social Innovation

People often ask me what Social Innovation is and my answer constantly evolves, but I strongly feel that it’s importance will continue to emerge.

Social Innovation is finding solutions to the social, cultural and environmental challenges we together face.

The world and our society has experienced unprecedented growth in the last 100 years. While we have marvelled at our progress we are only now starting to realise the impact on ourselves, on our communities and on our earth.

Social Innovation challenges these notions. It asks us to look outside the systems that are now such a part of our lives, to challenge our unquenchable desire to consume, our sometimes limiting education systems, our population explosion and it’s impact, and our often crumbling health systems. It often pushes for a reconnection to our community, it offers us the opportunity to make a difference in our lives, the lives of those around us, of our global village and, our precious planet.

The examples are varied yet so very exciting:

From Umair H and his New Capitalist Manifesto:   Breaking habits of extracting value and running passionless organisations, to creating enduring, authentic value for people.
Enter Meaning Organisations: create micro- and macro-structures that fuel radically meaningful work, life, and play.

To the new consumer behaviour Collaborative Consumption where we swap or barter or pay for goods and services that we would have mindlessly discarded in the 20th century hyper-consumption model.

We’re connected in a way that we never before dreamed. The What Took You So Long Foundation is a team dedicated to filming grassroots NGOs, untold stories, & unsung heroes in some of the more remote corners of the globe.

Or the Start Your School Online platform that empowers everyone to create customized education environments for live online learning.

To help and supports these entrepreneurs,  organisations such as The Unreasonable Institute aim to give altruistic entrepreneurs skills and funding to effect large-scale change.

This is only a fraction of what is going on, with Social Innovation going on in government to open it up, micro-donation sites that give loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries such as Kiva or the people powered political activist group GetUp, which played such a big part in the last election.

This is only the beginning, the future is very excited now that we are so connected, informed and increasingly frustrated and empowered to make positive change.

What are your examples? And, do you have anything to add to this definition? It is always evolving and growing so would love to hear.

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That’s a wrap at Social Innovation Sydney #2

November 11th, 2010 · Social Innovation

The feedback we’re receiving thus far is that the day created vibrant discussion, new ideas, and actionable steps. The collaboration and shared insight from the experience and passion of the multitude of attendees is the perfect recipe for continued action.

Mark Pesce set the tone of the day by exploring our connection with material items, with our mobile phones. Mark challenged us to just say NO as this was the first step to living sustainably. Stephen Lawrence followed this by noting that the journey to be a Change maker begins with the journey inside ourselves.

The sessions were varied and informative. Popular sessions included Social Innovation 101: skills for citizen change makers, collaborative consumption and Australian opportunities, plus social network & social cause fatigue.  Agenda here

Along with the Unconference Barcamp the Bootcamp stream was successful. Participants stepped through tools and necessary skills entrepreneurs require to develop successful social enterprises. Key topics included Social Innovation business models, giving a great pitch, pitching practice (how to ask for funding) and lean start-up methodology.

“Congratulations on running a very impressive SIS event yesterday.  I would be hard pressed to think of ways to improve what you achieved. I feel very confident about the future of society in Sydney after hearing the ideas that surfaced yesterday.” John Young, Yindi Systems

“Great to have conversations about topics that are important but I never get that chance to talk about”.

But how was it for you?  What would you like at the next Social Innovation Sydney?

Social Innovation Sydney blog here

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Week 3: Pollenizer BootCamp Customer Development

October 1st, 2010 · entrepreneur, personal development

The Pollenizer Bootcamp is enforcing the Lean methodology and forcing me to think as a “smart” entrepreneur. What’s that saying? “work smart, not harder”, that is the case for all teams at the camp.

The Week 3 session has been and gone and, now I’ve focused on what my idea is, it’s time to test my hypothesis ~ only it’s a little scary.

I enjoyed the fact that I was not told what to do with this stage, but pulled in the right direction and making the decision myself on what should be done.  The steps for my customer development and manual testing on my own idea are easy enough that I can do it myself, and see the results as they happen.

Getting started on my start up, getting started with my idea, does not seem so big and unachievable any more.  Granted, it is only the first test, and I am a bit anxious that it will fail as I would love to develop it through, but it will also be good to see the reaction, see how people respond, see if there is a valid opportunity for development here, or if I need a pivot.

So, what have I done to test? I have created a facebook event and asked people in my network to participate, I have tried not to pre-empt them.

I now have the first post on the wall, my first interaction but wonder how long I have to wait till the next. Would it be cheating to send them an email to remind them? How much can I control or push for participation?

So many learning experiences, so many variables to notice, such a small yet important hypothesis to test. Maybe I should just let it all happen.

Let the games, and testing, begin

Results next week.

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Listening to your inner voice is the right choice

September 30th, 2010 · personal development

It’s so easy to get advice, so easy for people to tell you what they think you should do. But is it the best advice for YOU?

Only recently taking the step to create my own business it felt so important to find mentors, to ask questions, to rely on other people’s advice to make my decisions.

And it’s strange that on some of my biggest choices, some of the most important decisions, proposals and ideas I could hear a little voice inside telling what to do but doubting that due to a lack of experience, or due to simply a lack of belief but, often regretting not listening to myself, down the track.

Take for example a big opportunity I had with an aboriginal research institute. I had proposed a big social media strategy to communicate the results and as a place for a conversation with the Australian community. I had senior members excited and happy to participate, I had the time to devote myself to this project and, as I had just left corporate to have a more active role in social change and social innovation I knew this was the break I was after to make my mark in this field.

But my mentor pushed me to charge them. I knew in my heart they could not afford it, I did not wish to be a charity and just volunteer but, in this new age of ever evolving skill sets, of new opportunities and eternal connection, that this break would build momentum for continuing endeavours in this area. They unsurprisingly pulled out of negotiations when I included massive costs and the deal failed.

My point is that my mentor could not see what I could see: he volunteered for what he was passionate about but was paid for a job that he was not. He had the skills and experience but was not seeing the world from my perspective.

The lesson: to trust my inner voice but, to also explore the decision, to make any decision on my own rather than just jumping at the advice of another.

The article “Today you can only be a leader by creating leaders” explains why this will become the norm. To encourage people to follow their own passions instead of doing only what they are told, will create a new generation of innovation and vibrant leaders confident in their abilities. After all, we are all leaders.

Have you had any experience of this?  Are you a leader following your own voice?

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Best of both world’s, but how to integrate?

September 22nd, 2010 · Social Innovation, entrepreneur, technology

Walking home this evening, after an intense day focused with workshops on social innovation and web tech, it struck me how siloed these 2 worlds are when they have such potential to integrate. Both are developing their own methodologies and frameworks to become more efficient and increase the possibility of success, yet both show possible signs of misunderstanding or are unable to keep up with the other.

Firstly, why do they hold so much value?
- The web and technology platforms that can be created have infinite possibility for innovation, growth and structure.
- Social innovation has the potential to solve some of the most fundamental issues facing humanity including environmental, social justice, world hunger and over population.

“The creation of the Internet was like the big bang of the universe: total chaos, breaking up of old and now it is self organising into clusters and structures that can benefit all.” Leading Social Innovation  collaborator Tonya Surman.

The possibilities of the web and the design principals of collaboration, connection and community are boundless. The key message from leading practitioners in social innovation is to create local and replicate instead of scaling. However, technology is accelerating at a far faster rate than the social innovation movement can keep up with, and nor do they fully understand the frameworks and methodologies for effectively developing these online platforms. [Read more →]

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