Stock markets around the world crash. 2008. ⢠The Green ... to pieces, I would still plant my apple treeâ. MARTIN ..
This infographic is a culmination of voices, ideas, insights and experiences contributed before, during or immediately after the SIX Wayfinder 2017. Quotes are paraphrased.
SHOULD WE BE UNITED IN OUR PRACTICE (The Journey)
PURPOSE (The Destination) The context for our work Social in our ends...?
The field of social innovation Social in our means...?
2006
10 YEARS IN REVIEW OF THE FIELD
10 YEARS IN REVIEW OF THE WORLD
2006
BEIJING: A new network for social innovation is founded
• SAN FRANCISCO: A new network for microblogging is founded (Twitter)
Global gathering leads to the creation of SIX, the Social Innovation Exchange, and a rough roadmap towards mainstreaming social innovation, recommending:
• The Saffron Revolution rocks Burma
• News sources of finance focused specifically on innovation
• Apple releases the iPhone
2007
• More open markets for social solutions • New kinds of incubators for promising models • ‘Accelerators’ to advance innovation
• US elects its first black president • Kosovo declares independence
2008
• New tools, incentives etc. to empower users to drive innovation themselves • New institutions to help orchestrate more systemic change • New institutions focused on adapting new technologies for their social potential
• Stock markets around the world crash
• More extensive, rigorous, imaginative and historically aware research on how social innovation happens and how it can be helped.
2009
Over the next 10 years (2006-2016) the field of social innovation grows and matures:
• US Operation Iraqi Freedom ends
• The Green Revolution takes place in Iran
2010
PEOPLE
• 100,000s killed in an earthquake in Haiti • Labour loses its first UK election in 18 years • Arab Spring begins
• Rise of citizenship activism and DIY democracy • Social innovation skills become more widely accessible • New social movements pioneer social innovation in fields like disability, refugee rights and the environment
• Uprising sweeps Libyan Col Gaddafi’s government from power • Syrian civil uprising turns to civil war • South Sudan gains independence from the Republic of Sudan
• Incubators, accelerators, and transnational networks of social incubators flourish
MONEY
2011
2012
• Social impact bonds develop • New funding tools and platforms emerge, such as crowdfunding • Social investment funds offer a new route to help innovations grow to scale
• Maine, Maryland and Washington in the US became the first states to legalize gay marriage via popular vote
• New legal forms like community interest companies and benefit corporations develop • Increase in social innovation prizes and support given
2013
• Edward Snowden leaks classified NSA information
• The gang rape of a 23-year old woman on a moving bus places India under global scrutiny for its ‘rape epidemic’ • Rana Plaza building collapses in Bangladesh, creating intense scrutiny of global supply chains • Typhoon Haiyan strikes the Philippines
KNOWLEDGE • New social innovation media develop and scale • Proliferation of university research centres and curricula • INGOs see innovation as a way of responding to new technological opportunities and challenges
2 14
• Social innovation is seen as overlapping, but unique from social entrepreneurship, enterprise, creativity, or investment
POWER
• Ebola strikes West Africa • ISIS Declares an Islamic Caliphate • Oil prices crash
2015
• Global refugee crisis escalates as the death toll of refugees rises • The Paris Agreement on Climate Change • Pope Francis publishes the encyclical letter ‘On care for our common home’ linking social and ecological justice
• Donors recognise the need for collaboration and collective impact • Municipal and community collective impact takes root from the ground up • Spread of social innovation centres and labs within and beyond government
• Britain leaves the EU • Donald Trump is elected the US President • Colombia strikes peace deal
2016
• National policy programmes are introduced in various countries • Digital social innovation takes off
2017
STATE OF THE FIELD: PROCESS
STATE OF THE FIELD: PURPOSE
SOCIAL INNOVATION HAS COME A LONG WAY, BUT STILL HAS MANY BARRIERS IN PLACE
ACTIVITY v NEED Social innovation faces a reality gap in terms of scale. The scale of our activity is small relative to the scale and urgency of need. We must tackle difficult questions: • How do we overcome the fragmentation between public, private and civil society? • Are we scaling too fast? Or not fast enough? • How do we prevent the perception of long-standing, evidence-based models, such as co-operatives, of losing out to novelty?
“So less about social innovation as stand alone and more about ‘missions’ of change to which we need to apply the discipline?... We systematically misunderstand and miscommunicate what we are all about” MARTIN STEWART-WEEKS, PwC
Social innovation is still on the margins and far from achieving lasting transformation. Are we deluding ourselves to thinking that our experiments are working?
• How do we break the perception that sustainable and values-driven is not a powerful capital investment?
‘We need to challenge our biases and assumptions to take on the fault lines, failed states and civil strife, racism and radicalisation, and places near and far falling into despair. We went from the Arab spring to despair in only 5 years. Solutions are needed, but even more, we must deal with major fractures in societies.
• Are we festishising the language of innovation? We risk prioritising innovation as an end in itself rather than a means to other ends. • How do we bring humility to this process?
We need to rethink our assumptions around how social innovation adds value in a fragmented, uncertain world’ (Tarik Yousef, Brookings Centre Doha).
• How do we reframe the question so it’s about scaling impact, not innovations?
There is still work to be done:
There is still work to be done:
“If markets could have solved the world’s problems, they would have done so by now”
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree” MARTIN LUTHER
KRISS DEIGLMEIER, TIDES
LONDON 2017: SIX WAYFINDER THE NEXT 10 YEARS OF SOCIAL INNOVATION A CONVERSATION, NOT A CONFERENCE
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TRENDS CURRENTLY SHAPING THE FIELD:
VALUES COMPASS: WHAT GUIDES THIS WORK?
DIGITAL “We are in a moment of time that’s historical. What is happening in Europe and around the world reminds me of the period between the 1st and 2nd World Wars in Europe, and it’s really scary. However, thanks to SIX for making a platform to help make us connect and to think about what guides you? What guides us?”
“Technology is changing our world dramatically, we cannot afford to leave shaping this future to big companies” FRANCESCA BRIA, Barcelona City Council The growth of open technologies and large-scale participation Growing awareness of open data and the ownership of data Concentration of power and monopolies Job losses with the increase in automation
UFFE ELBAEK, DANISH MP
PHILANTHROPY “Social innovation is not just about new things. It can bring the past into the present in new ways to help solve social problems” STEPHEN HUDDART, The J.W, McConnell Family Foundation
“We’re forgetting the real language - the people, humanity, the love that actually guides this work. The personal journey.”
Funders are helping fill the gaps of investment Funders collaborating, pooling funds and leveraging funding to drive collective impact and shared learning Too many small-scale/individual projects, not leading to systemic change
CHARLIE LEADERBEATER
Power imbalance between foundations, civil society and communities
SCHOOLS & SKILLS “...empower students with the creativity to design and develop their own jobs for an uncertain future “
“If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution (citing Emma Goldman).”
ADA WONG, Make a Difference Institute
UFFE ELBAEK, DANISH MP
Multiplicity of grassroots experiments (MOOCs for example) There is gap between the curriculum & the future skills needed
LEGAL FORMS
PROMPT: What guides your work? What values are sacred to you?
“Learn from heliotrophy -’ from helios ‘sun’ + trepein ‘to turn. Turn towards the sun” CHARMIAN LOVE, B Lab UK
TOP 10 SETS OF VALUES BY FREQUENCY
Growth and acceptance of benefit corporations around the US and globally
EQUALITY DEEP RELATIONSHIPS KIND DIGNITY OPENNESS DIVERSITY
Accounting for a wider range of stakeholders, not just shareholders Lack of public awareness and understanding of the laws
COLLABORATION
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
FUN LEARNING PLAY
“Without a strategy to influence government, social entrepreneurship will not reach large scale sustained change ” FLORIAN RUTSCH, Ashoka
EMPATHY
Move towards systematic rather than strategic impact Decoupling the size of impact from the size of the organisation Young people not empowered or trained in changemaking
COMPASSION INCLUSIVENESS
Lack of strategy to influence government, limiting the full potential scale of impact
CURIOSITY HUMILITY
FREEDOM LOVE POSITIVE
POLICY “The best impact we (as policy labs) can have is when we empower our fellow public servants/services to unleash their social intrapreneur”
INTEGRITY
ALEX RYAN, The Alberta CoLab
COURAGE HONESTY
Growth of public social innovation labs, teams, nudge units, and hubs around the world Mayors are increasingly defined by their commitment to social innovation
CREATIVE RESPECT
PROVOCATION: Are there core principles to social innovation?
Too often like-minded tribes of self-serving belief systems Lack of impact of mainstreaming innovation within institutions
In principle, social innovation is:
SOCIAL INVESTMENT “Who decides what good is? ”
• People-powered • Challenge-focused • Values-based • Dialectic - focused on exchange • Social in means and ends • Asset-based • Critically self-reflective • An emergent and shared learning journey • Informed by complexity lens • About integrity (walk the walk) • Inherently crosssectoral
CLIFF PRIOR, Big Society Capital Leverage capital for development Growing opportunities for collaboration Alignment around SDGs Impact hijacked by major institutions at ‘full commercial return’
DEVELOPMENT “Mapping is public and private, making the invisible become visible” CELINA AGATON Map the Philippines Donors becoming more humble and working more cooperatively with local partners Prioritization of the power of values that underpin development Donor driven/agenda setting Cluster only during the ideation process instead of execution
BUSINESS “Through business, we make impact that can be more long-term and sustainable than a charity”
• Focused on the roots of problems • Committed to inclusion, equality and fairness • Agile and rigorous • Diverse in approach and method • Biased to action and experimentation • Driven by passion for a cause and a good purpose • Humble • Better together (collaborative) • Persistent and curious
LISEN WIREN, Inter Ikea
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”
Purposeful business - drive more towards positive social impact From CSR to integrated business practice Companies starting to take whole value chain approach.
AFRICAN PROVERB
Private decisions for public good - who are they to decide? Lack of democratic legitimacy
COOPERATIVES
ONGOING TENSIONS IN ACTION
“Those who opt to make history and change the course of events themselves have an advantage over those who decide to wait passively for the results of change”
VALUE v VALUES
IBON ZUGASTI quotes Father José María Arizmendiarrieta Madariaga, founder of the Mondragon cooperative movement
Corporations are increasingly thinking about their social impact, but often face the paradox of contributing to the problems they now seek to help solve. Embedding social impact into the core of business models requires significant internal transformation to align values and value.
Global alliances aligned to values Participatory in nature and growth from the ground up on a local scale Negative perceptions of ‘co-operative’
Can social innovation forcefully disrupt power structures in business and government, not just hack around them?
Perception that sustainable and values driven is slow and less access to capital
PEOPLE v POWER
SYSTEMS CHANGE
Social innovation is restricted by a shrinking civil space around the world: how do we reach out and ensure that we’re creating room for more people? Is the social innovation field inclusive enough?
“Changing systems starts with changing ourselves, assumptions and perspectives” ELLA SALTMARSHE, the Comms Lab
Can social innovation happen without democratic innovation? How do we bring the conversation back to people and less about us?
Better understanding of choice and control for people marginalized by the system Deeper respect for complexity and the seriousness of domains for change
NORTH v SOUTH
Assumptions within policy that impact the lives of many
How do we increase the diversity of this movement? Many of the innovations celebrated from the South are actually expats from the North. Only 33% of social entrepreneurship awards in Africa are for Africans. How do we ensure that those in the South are being empowered to innovate and are investment ready?
Lack of understanding of where or how to start or how to measure change
CITIES
RESEARCH v PRACTICE
“Social innovation is not a luxury, it’s a necessity” AMALIA ZEPOU
Research and practice need to be integrated as one. We need practice to practice sharing and learning. We need to bring together dispersed literature and knowledge not through papers, but conversations.
Emergence of active citizens that enhance liveability, create communities and are united in their mission to make the city more liveable, green, resilient. Platforms are developing to promote the Commons and connect city officials to innovators
‘We focus too much on some stars more than others, on the fact that some shine brighter than others and instead we need to look at the constellations’
The administration and operation of the city blocks innovation Lack of visibility and funding for citymakers
RHETORIC v ACTION MEASUREMENT
We need to ensure that innovation is not just an add-on, but integrated and diffused throughout organisations. To get to action and impact, we need to make sure that we’re focused on getting past the rhetoric, making our activities time-bound, encouraging free play, developing credibility and focusing on the individual. Understanding failure is as important as understanding what works.
“The shift from risk mitigation to opportunity is the reason for optimism” SAM BAKER, Monitor Deloitte There’s a shift from risk mitigation to opportunity There’s a shift from case studies to data Are we losing the qualitative input?
IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS, WILL SOCIAL INNOVATION BE ...a movement AND/OR …a sustainable business model AND/OR …a behaviour and a way of working with shared values and culture AND/OR …broadened in scope throughout society AND/OR …a backend operating system AND/OR … a political alternative ...a human social conservation movement
“We overestimate what we can achieve in 3 years and underestimate what we can do in 10. We need to be ready.” CLIFF PRIOR, Big Society Capital
WHERE PROCESS MEETS PURPOSE: Our practice for the next 10 years CALLS TO ACTION With diverse, powerful ideas shared at the Wayfinder, each call to action is a synthesis of where there was strong convergence and uptake.
FOCUS ON DEMAND
FOCUS ON
PEOPLE
Unleash the power of ordinary people by working with those who are different, people from other sides and sectors. This requires different approaches.
There is a disparity of investment in the supply of social innovation - the ecosystem of support, intermediaries and skills accelerators - over people and communities desirous of social innovation. Do we understand the demand?
Human connection matters more than having a plan and a common vision when building social innovation amongst diverse groups.
One opportunity is to mainstream social innovation as a mechanism for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This means understanding demand in tension with perceived need.
We need to create citizens, not clients; the right relationships in society, between humans, not better products and services.
We need to apply social innovation to critical emergent demand.
REFRAME RELATIONSHIPS
GET OFF THE SIDELINES AND INTO THE GAME - OF POLITICS What we want to accomplish is not just the alteration of a person’s material condition, but their social status and the relationships that they have with one another.
Our challenge now is to innovate society. How do we ensure that our pilot projects amount to something bigger? We are all helping to reshape connections and reframe society. We need to surface and make visible the disconnections producing the prevailing economic, cultural and social structures that play out in the inequalities our innovation approaches seek to address.
Politics is important because it’s associated with delivery of attitudes and conditions. We need to embrace the political dimension of this work and create a political strategy.
We need to connect the hearts of those in the community who are looking for change.
GET TRULY MULTI SECTOR
TAKE UP DIGITAL
Our greatest social problems are being managed by all three sectors;public, private and third; hence any solutions need to engage at all these levels.
Platform cooperativism and local action are helping to push digital into the realm of what matters - the basics and the things that people care about: food, health, care, etc, led by distributed data and the protection of the digital rights of people.
We need to move beyond the charismatic CEO approach, so that everyone becomes a bridger and we have a leadership rich ecosystem.
We need to direct our extraordinary technological power to serve our values and our needs.
We need to activate the radical middle. We need to break through silos and bubbles, to work differently. Institutions need to be more human, inclusive, responsible and responsive.
REDIRECT RESOURCES We cannot continue to chip around the edges of existing systems of resource flows and governance. We need to purse a fundamental shift in the rules and assumptions guiding how resources and power are accessed, distributed and held accountable….
MONEY
KNOWLEDGE PEOPLE
TRANSITION INSTITUTIONS
RETHINK THE ECONOMY
• Shift from monologue to constructive dialogue • Create spaces to speak with people we disagree with • Train institutions to exist in a space of not knowing and hold tensions/ ambiguity • Advance new forms of shared leadership and horizontal partnership
• Add social innovation clauses in contracts • Enable everyone access to a basic standard of living and human rights at a global scale • Experiment with universal basic income
• Support corporates move towards tackling social problems • Make everyone an impact investor • Create a common language for impact measurement
POWER
EMBED VALUES IN DIGITAL FRAMEWORKS
PRIORITIZE PEOPLE AND PLANET • Create belonging and open access for all (flip & reverse Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) • Focus on co-design rather than participatory design • Celebrate and embed interdependence
• Achieve equality in access to technology • Implement data transparency regulation • Democratize data as social good • Universalize AI literacy
REVOLUTIONISE CITIZENSHIP • Encourage active citizenship as a way of mainstreaming innovation in public/private/civil society • Embed data sovereignty in people as a collective • Education is designed around active citizenship and ethics • Young people establish their role as change agents through rights-distributed platforms • Change political systems: all political debates are informed by people’s lives • Social innovation is integrated into the political narrative
TO ARRIVE IN 2027 WITH: RENEWED AGENCY
RENEWED RELATIONALITY
A NEW ECONOMY:
• Greater meaningful participation
• A values-based economy
• Gender equality as the norm
• A different sense of identity and place rooted in a deep sense of localism & globalism
• Citizenship revalued to work at the local and at the global level
• Interdependence and decentralised power reflective of people’s lived experience
• Stakeholder capitalism/mutuality over shareholder primacy
• Individuals able to pursue their own sense of purpose and potential underpinned by a greater sense of global interdependence
• Aligned public + private + social sectors
• Peer-to-peer lending and shared value replacing high street banks
• More resilient, liveable, and sustainable cities via dedicated citymakers
• Fluid, dynamic and changing systems reflective of care, diversity, inquiry and embracing and incentivizing failure
• Regenerative capitalism
SHARED KNOWLEDGE
RENEWED SOCIAL CONTRACT
IMPROVED RESILIENCE
• Solutions as a norm
• A mass, inclusive new social contract for how we deal with each other
• Food and income security - particularly when work is being automated and outsourced
• Labs fully diffused culturally into institutions • Supported global platforms for evidenced based information sharing
• All people realising their own potential • People prepared for a life of purpose
• Planetary sustainability and balance
• Better global solidarity • AI as a core ethical discussion and practice
WHAT CAN SOCIAL INNOVATION OFFER TO THE WORLD? A provocation by Charlie Leadbeater, as summarized by Allyson Hewitt In a world that feels out of control people will want more … Escapism – from an out of control world they can no longer abhor A different possibility is what we must offer A new form of Capitalism on the plate that we proffer In a world that feels out of control people will want more … Resistance – to living unacceptable lives that feel like a chore And we can offer the ability to create the right kind of relationships All along, as our population shifts People are waiting to live in truth, while in a system of lies To fight for and with them, the system they despise In a world that feels out of control people will want more … Coping mechanisms – to do better than before We fall into a cult of resilience and grit And slogans like “keep calm and carry on” are all that will fit Our heroes like Merkel are “Copers in Chief” As we exist in a world of our own disbelief
In a world that feels out of control people will want more … Conservation - of human potential, we cannot ignore We can create ideas around which others can organize Indifference to humanity we cannot normalize In a world that feels out of control people will want more … Movements - that literally move people across the floor With new leaders emerging from Zukerburg to the Pope Our message of linked beating hearts will help us all cope In a world that feels out of control people will want more … Opportunities - that are transformative and generative to explore It is time to change the rules of the game With new flows of resources which are no longer the same This is our time because people need ideas that are new We are all searching for something concrete we can do
So as Lincoln declared we must rise to the occasion And to act anew is our proud declaration
WHAT CAN YOU DO NEXT? The world is in a wayfinding moment...what direction will you take?
Work with SIX to host more Wayfinders around the world Encourage others to action by writing an open letter to your community Anchor and apply social innovation to specific missions
WHAT WILL SIX DO NEXT? SIX will continue to host a platform to facilitate these important and difficult conversations. We will provide support for those brave enough to join us and take action over the next 10 years and communicate the results widely. “What is it that social innovators can offer people to shape those reflexes in ways that privilege human potential, our obligations to and for each other and an ability to stand against prevailing conditions in favour of enduring values.” MARTIN STEWART-WEEKS, PwC
Infographic designed by Elizabeth Elcoate
