A Framework for Social Innovation!

Frances Westley SiG@Waterloo

University of Waterloo

November, 2008

What is social innovation?.!

Social innovation is an initiative, product or process which profoundly changes the basic routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs of any social system. Successful social innovations are therefore disruptive and have durability, impact and scale.

The role of: Social Innovation Generation (SiG) SiG@Waterloo

Key messages!  Social innovation is complex: understanding the

difference between complicated and complex is important in understanding the dynamics of social innovation

  Market/diffusion models of social innovation should be complimented by complex system models which see change as discontinuous and focus on cross scale dynamics.

  Agency and opportunity are both important.   Agency is defined not only by social entrepreneurship but

by institutional entrepreneurship   Institutional entrepreneurs tailor strategies to particular

opportunity contexts.

Santropol Roulant

Eva’s Phoenix

The Working Center

Innovations abound….

modified from Nesta (www.nesta.uk)

How do innovations achieve a broader impact?A marketing strategy for

“routine” change !

Hi control -innovation contained in the

organization-spread by growth or clonign

Lo control:

Innovation spreads like weeds- advocacy, persuasion and a sense of mvt.

Licensing and franchising - quality assurance and training

Structured, open source methods - sometimes with payment, consultation or technical assistance

Federations or control thru professional networks - helped by evaluation

Following a Recipe A Rocket to the Moon Raising a Child!

Complicated Complex Simple

Following a Recipe!

z The recipe is essential

z Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts

z No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success

z Recipe notes the quantity and nature of “parts” needed

z Recipes produce standard products

z Certainty of same results every time

Simple

Following a Recipe A Rocket to the Moon !

  Formulae are critical and necessary

  Sending one rocket increases assurance that next will be ok

  High level of expertise in many specialized fields + coordination

  Separate into parts and then coordinate

  Rockets similar in critical ways

  High degree of certainty of outcome

Complicated

z The recipe is essential

z Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts

z No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success

z Recipes produce standard products

z Certainty of same results every time

Simple

Following a Recipe A Rocket to the Moon Raising a Child !

  Formulae are critical and necessary

  Sending one rocket increases assurance that next will be ok

  High level of expertise in many specialized fields + coordination

  Rockets similar in critical ways

  High degree of certainty of outcome

  Formulae have only a limited application

  Raising one child gives no assurance of success with the next

  Expertise can help but is not sufficient; relationships are key

  Can’t separate parts from the whole

  Every child is unique

  Uncertainty of outcome remains

Complicated Complex

z The recipe is essential

z Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts

z No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success

z Recipes produce standard products

z Certainty of same results every time

Simple

Following a Recipe A Rocket to the Moon Raising a Child!

  Formulae are critical and necessary

  Sending one rocket increases assurance that next will be ok

  High level of expertise in many specialized fields + coordination

  Separate into parts and then coordinate

  Rockets similar in critical ways

  High degree of certainty of outcome

  Formulae have only a limited application

  Raising one child gives no assurance of success with the next

  Expertise can help but is not sufficient; relationships are key

  Can’t separate parts from the whole

  Every child is unique

  Uncertainty of outcome remains

Complicated Complex

z The recipe is essential

z Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts

z No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success

z Recipe notes the quantity and nature of “parts” needed

z Recipes produce standard products

z Certainty of same results every time

Simple

 Complicated – “complicare”- folded  Verb - to fold

 Complex – “complexus” – woven  Verb – to embrace or

comprehend a pattern

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Stored

Released Variety Sameness

An idea is born

The idea is developed

The idea is launched as a product, process or organization

An “established” innovation

A model for complex and discontinuous change: cross scale

interactions!

Social Innovation

Political system Economic system Cultural system Legal system

Social entrepreneur

Institutional

entrepreneurs + actor nets

Interorganizational/ intersectoral system

Local/organizational system

What is an institution!

  “A patterned set of behaviors and meanings which structure social behavior over time”  Embedded in our language and our

understandings  Embedded in our rules for social behavior;

including in our laws.  Embedded in our economy, including resource

distribution

What is the role of the institutional entrepreneur!

 To change the ideas, discourse, knowledge, social interactions, resource expenditures, and policies/laws which support environmental destruction to a new pattern which supports a particular innovation.

 To work across scales and boundaries and with multiple agents (agent net) in the “institutional field”

Institutional entrepreneurs tune strategies of resource mobilization to different opportunity contexts of

social innovation :!

Designing strategies for cross scale impact when change opportunity is

opaque : “ up-down strategies” !  Innovation occurs in the community in the context of organizations/

coalitions addressing specific issues - where problems are solved in real time

  Social innovators/institutional entrepreneurs key role is to:   question the strategic context/directions of decision makers in all sectors

at the community level and beyond.   frame (explain) the context for community   identify key innovations at the community level (those most pertinent to

the strategies)   sell these to the key strategic decision makers (finding the right moment

to introduce the key innovation)

@Westley, SiG, University of Waterloo

National communications strategy -tell the story

Political

C1

C2 C3

Senate commission: report and media attention

Legal

Identification of

system pathologies

and promising

innovations

“First

response” strategy

Committees

PR

Seed innovations

Institutional entrepreneurs+ actor net

Example 1: A movement for Mental Health….

.

Example 2 :Saving Endangered Species!

Interpersonal and knowledge management competencies

required!  Interpersonal

 Convening  Conflict

management  Facilitation

 Knowledge management  Creating a common

vision  Enhancing

sensemaking

Example 3. Plan Canada and the RDSP!

  “Every innovation has two parts: the first is the invention of the thing itself; the second is the preparation of expectations so that when the invention arrives it seems both surprising and familiar -something long awaited” Edwin Land

 The social innovators +

 The institutional entrepreneurs

Interpersonal and Knowledge skills required!

  Building social capital and mobilizing it in support of novelty

  Building intellectual/cultural capital and mobilizing it in support

  Building financial capital and mobilizing it in support

  Recognizing and championing innovative idea

  Connecting the idea to “windows of opportunity” at multiple scales

  System understanding and emerging pattern recognition

Example 4: The Great Bear Rain Forest

courtesy of Darcy Riddell

Social-Ecological Significance! 25% of world’s Coastal Temperate

Rainforest

 Richest bio-mass on earth

 100+ pristine valleys (none in US)

 20%+ of the world’s wild salmon Spirit bears, wolves, grizzlies

 Cultural, economic and social significance: competing claims

adapted from Darcy Riddell

Competing Claims!

 Activists, logging companies, researchers, First Nations, Government….all laid claim1990s: widespread Land Use Plans

 From mid-1980s-mid-1990s -conflict and blockades in Clayoquot Sound: mass arrests raise the stakes

courtesy of Darcy Riddell

Final Agreements! Permanent protection – 5 million acres  New parks - 3.3 million acres

 Previous parks - 1 million acres

 New no-logging zones - 736,000 acres

 EBM – 21 million acres

 $35 million mitigation package for forest workers

 $120 Million for conservation economy

 First Nations approve all plans  International Marketplace shift  Model used in Chile, Boreal, USA

courtesy of Darcy Riddell

Facing the Shadow!  Forest workers: “capuccino-sucking urban enviros”   First Nations: “eco-colonialists”   Forest Companies: “they are trying to destroy us

and the province we care about” and dueling scientists

  Government: “irresponsible” and “enemies of BC”   Other environmentalists: “corporate sell-outs” Grains of truth= “breathe”

In sum….the process of transformation:!

 International level - inside out strategy - using global market resources to reframe provincial “playing field”

 Fertile ground fo innovation

 Negotiation level =Change in stance: Owning the shadow of environmentalism – solutions space

The essence of an innovation!  A change in meaning

  - “branding” The Great Bear Rain Forest   “reframing” from the “war in the woods” to a generative

collaboration   New patterns of resource flows

  social financing and the conservation economy   New relationships and practices

  An experience of integration   Different logging technologies become viable; different

networks for product distribution

Continues to stimulate!

 Market demands for “Ancient Forest Friendly” papers

 Additional innovations: the “conservation economy” takes hold

 New forms of social financing - Coastal Opportunities funds, First Nations forestry companies

Interpersonal and knowledge skills needed!

 Building coalitions  Managing conflict  Securing capital for

a focused momentum

 Building vertical commitments

 Social Marketing  Bridging

perspectives and kinds of knowledge

 Owning the shadow

Summary!  To understand social innovation demands a

complexity perspective   To understand how social inventions have a broad

impact, marketing models can only tell part of the story

  Cross-scale dynamics are key and institutional entrepreneurs + actor nets are as important for impact as are social entrepreneurs.

  Institutional entrepreneurs draw on a range of transactional and translational skills and competencies to manage different phases of social innovation for greater impact.

“Farmers don’t grow crops. They create the conditions for crops to

grow.” - Gareth Morgan