Some assembly required Innovation for complex challenges

Joeri van den Steenhoven Director, MaRS Solutions Lab

@joerivds solutions-lab.marsdd.com#CKX

The basic economic resource – the means of production, to use economist’s term – is no longer

capital, nor land, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge.

Value is now created by productivity and innovation, both applications of knowledge to work.

!

Peter Drucker (1993)

Good news | Bad news

Institutions | Communities

We live in an age of mass creativity

Fire fighters in the US

Police Officers in the Netherlands

Food Banks in Canada

Families in need in Australia

The power of the community

InstitutionsCommunities

Difficult to use talents of people

Decrease of problem solving capacity

People better educated and informed, and many want to be engaged

Problem solving capacity on record high

PEOPLE

InstitutionsCommunities

Difficult to use talents of people

Operate in silos, so remains difficult to collaborate despite technology

Decrease of problem solving capacity

People better educated and informed, and many want to be engaged

Technology enables to collaborate and perform complex tasks horizontally

Problem solving capacity on record high

PEOPLE

TECHNOLOGY

InstitutionsCommunities

Difficult to use talents of people

Fewer public resources, often restricted to certain kind of funding

Difficult to collaborate, operate in silos

Decrease of problem solving capacity

People better educated and informed, and many want to be engaged

More private capital for social good, and investing it for impact

Technology enables us to collaborate and perform complex tasks horizontally

Problem solving capacity on record high

PEOPLE

CAPITAL

TECHNOLOGY

But now the bad news…..

Time%Co

mplexity

%

Public%Systems%

Social%Challenges%

Systems failure

No more time for band aids Need to work togetherSolving complex challenges

requires innovation

Understand the problem

Space to experiment

New solution = new standard

Process of Innovation

Albert Einstein

“If I had an hour to solve a problem,

I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about

solutions.” !

Albert Einstein

Step 1: Understanding the problem

User perspective

System Perspective

Institutional perspective

Step 1: Understanding the problem

Tame problem Crisis Wicked

problem

Step 2: Creating space for experimentation

Interpret'

Intervene'

Observe'

Heifetz'et'al.,'2009,'The'Prac4ce'of'Adap4ve'Leadership'

Step 3: Scaling and turning new solutions into new standards

Pilots Prototypes

• Targeted system change interventions

• Testing small-scale before scaling

• Not just focus on new solution, but

also how to change system to scale it

(e.g policies, capacity)

• Stand-alone interventions

• Little incentives to scale

• Focus on solution

The lab process

H R T M

Hypothesis Research Test Market

Developing new solutions

So U Co Pr Sc

Solutions Understand Co-create Prototype Scale

You only understand the problem once you start to solve it.

Policy Change

Po F V Ev Np

Policy change Frame Vision Evidence New policies

Building capacity for change

Ca St I Ea Em

Capacity Stakeholders Innovators Early adopters Early Majority

H R T M

Hypothesis Research Test Market

Po F V Ev Np

Policy change Frame Vision Evidence New policies

So U Co Pr Sc

Solutions Understand Co-create Prototype Scale

Ca St I Ea Em

Capacity Stakeholders Innovators Early adopters Early Majority

Periodic Table of Systems Change

H R T M

Hypothesis Research Test Market

Po F V Ev Np

Policy change Frame Vision Evidence New policies

So U Co Pr Sc

Solutions Understand Co-create Prototype Scale

Ca St I Ea Em

Capacity Stakeholders Innovators Early adopters Early Majority

Periodic Table of Systems Change

A COMMON CHANGE STRATEGY

ACTIONS

GROWING MOVEMENT

New Job

First year on the job

Youth prepare, train & search for job

Employers strategize, create & hire

STRATEGIZE Workforce planning

CREATE Job creation & design

HIRE Search & hire

PREPARE Education & Training on general/soft skills

TRAIN Train & Experience

on job skills (eg. Internship)

SEARCH Job Search & Application

ON-BOARDING

PROBATION

EXTENSION

Seeing the system

New Job

First year on the job

Youth prepare, train & search for job

Employers strategize, create & hire

STRATEGIZE Workforce planning

CREATE Job creation & design

HIRE Search & hire

PREPARE Education & Training on general/soft skills

TRAIN Train & Experience

on job skills (eg. Internship)

SEARCH Job Search & Application

ON-BOARDING

PROBATION

EXTENSION

1

2 3 4

4

5

5

A

B

CD

E

E

F

Designing & Prototyping Interventions

Scaling for change

The Business Model CanvasSystems Change Edition

This work is created under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0

International License

Problem Concept

Users & CustomersList your targeted users and customers.

Value Proposition/LVW�KRZ�\RX�KDYH�VDWLV¿HG�\RXU�XVHUV¶�QHHGV�DQG�ZK\�WKH\�WXUQ�WR�\RX�DQG�QRW�others.

Systems ChangeList what your intervention can achieve at scale.

Key ActivitiesList the actions you must undertake.

Key PartnershipsList the partners, suppliers, and allies you need.

Key ResourcesList the resources you need for your key activities.

Revenue StreamsList your most important sources of revenue.

Cost Structure/LVW�\RXU�PRVW�LPSRUWDQW�¿[HG�DQG�YDULDEOH�FRVWV�

Team Name / Organization

Affordable Housing !

Food Security !

Youth Employment

CKX Solutions Lab

Seeing the system !

Designing Interventions !

Scaling for change

Finally, some design principles

#1 Work back to the future

#2 Work back to citizen

#3 Look for the smallest possible intervention, with the largest possible impact

#4 No action without reflection, no reflection without action

Some assembly required Innovation for complex challenges

Joeri van den Steenhoven Director, MaRS Solutions Lab

@joerivds solutions-lab.marsdd.com#CKX