Five characteristics of authentic social innovation

Active Democracy work and the PublicSectorLaunchpad. Before designing any kind of system it seems to me that we first need to step back and think about some core cultural traits – for people and systems. When it comes to social innovation I think these are many we could propose, but there are five that stand out for me as critical. Without these the ecosystem (and the people and ideas within the ecosystem) will fail.

Purposeful

Social innovation needs to be driven by values not simply by financial gain and commercial scaling metrics. This opens up to a wider range of ideas, metrics and potential but it should also alert us to the failings of out-dated equity/investment financing models.

Responsive

Grow, pivot, plummet and fail. These are all valid stages of innovation. Successful social innovation recognises the need to be flexible, allowing for a lean and organic process and accepting that a change of direction and failure are opportunities to improve and learn. Where failure is terminal for an idea, the system retains the memory and the learning and both feedback into the learning cycle and knowledge is stored up to revisit later.

Authentic

Driven by integrity and authenticity, not ego and power. The former lifts and connects, the latter controls and limits. It’s about doing with, not having power over.

Spiralling

Grasping the germ of an idea, nurturing it through a creative process then sharing, mixing, developing it so products and services can ignite our society and stimulate intellectual interest back into the ideation process.

Collaborative

Innovation is about doing something different, something better. This doesn’t include limiting our thinking by competing with each other for limited space, funding or markets. Clever innovation is open, collaborative and co-creating because sharing expands the boundaries of potential.  ]]>