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Seeding Innovation

Hosted by Sally Madsen (August 2009)

seeding innovationWhat does it mean to seed innovation –to help a community or a sector create new solutions?
 
In the Ripple Effect project, seeding innovation means supporting motivated organizations to experiment, learn, iterate, and scale new strategies and offerings in the water sector.  Ripple Effect is a collaboration between IDEO, Acumen Fund, and prominent water organizations in India and Kenya, funded by the Gates Foundation.
 
This project focuses on the often-overlooked areas of water transport and storage – that is, increasing accessibility to safe water, reducing the time and effort to collect water, and reducing contamination.  The water organizations include social enterprises and non-profits in diverse areas of India and Kenya. Some purify and sell water, others focus on household water treatment; some favor technological solutions, others focus on awareness-building and community activism.

With such a range of organizations, we feel that it is critical not to standardize but to help each organization innovate according to their own strategy and approach. The Ripple Effect collaboration includes funding, business support, and sharing IDEO’s Human-Centered Design innovation process (which can be applied to designing new products, services, businesses, and systems).

Ripple Effect is a new model for impact, and we’re embracing the opportunity to learn and share with others.
 
Let’s discuss innovation approaches that work: from principles for successful collaboration to the nuanced examples that come through specific projects and experiences. I’m thrilled to be able to discuss these issues with such a diverse community of thinkers and practitioners.
 
Some questions to get the conversation started:

  • What elements are important to seeding innovation? What makes innovations “stick”?
  • What types of support do organizations value most—is it funding & resources, new ideas, structures & processes, collaboration, competition. Something else?
  • How can you seed innovation in a way that meets both your goals and the goals of the organizations that you are working with? Does a funder get to choose, or the implementer? What kind of negotiation might take place?


Join IDEO’s Sally Madsen in the conversation. Be innovative!

Comments: 20

Innovation

Posted by Prakash H.R. at Aug 18, 2009 08:05 PM
The origin for an innovation is a problem or issue faced by people you are concerned and the commitment to find a solution. Therefore a process entails a thorough understanding of the various elements of the problem.The people who are experiencing it or dealing with are best ones to give you the understanding. So it is important that you respect their views and listen to them.
Solution to the problem need not always need to be invented. Innovation is exploring solutions,adapting to the given situation and make it work in a cost-effective and sustainable manner. It is important to include measures that enables to operate maintain and manage the innovated system by the local people. That is what make it stick.
The most important support is enabling the process of sharing and exchanging. Then a supporting the phase of trial and adaptation and securing acceptance of the people concerned. Finally, most people in the field are too committed and pre-occupied with their work to document and disseminate their experience and learning. Support of those specialized in this will contribute to the promotion of their innovations.
Trust and respect for each others commitments and limitations are the most important elements to arrive at a consensus in a partnership.
I am delighted to have this opportunity to share my views.
In solidarity

Innovation

Posted by Sally Madsen at Aug 19, 2009 03:18 PM
Prakash, thanks for these great points!

My experience corresponds with yours - often the people experiencing the situations already have solutions in practice or in their mind, and the challenge is to spread and scale them. By going to the field and talking to people you can learn what's working, what's not, and what are some local work-arounds that have emerged that reveal more about the problems.

Talking to people and observing in-context are great way to learn about successful ideas. What are some other ways? What are ways to tap into the process of sharing and exchanging that already exists, in addition to supporting new ones?

Innovation: conflict of process vs outcomes?

Posted by Nadinne Cruz at Aug 20, 2009 10:30 AM
It seems to me that there is a deep conflict between paradigms that honor the "process of sharing and exchanging...[and the] phase of trial and adaptation" vs. those focused on "outcomes" predetermined by design. They are not, in principle, mutually exclusive. Rather, they seem to speak to different views of accountability, related to "ways of being" (ontology) and understanding the world (epistemology). How can we negotiate those differences and benefit from different approaches, depending on varying situations and contexst?

Innovation: conflict of process vs outcomes?

Posted by Sally Madsen at Aug 21, 2009 12:34 PM
Great question.
And also, how can we shape projects so that the successful outcomes do include sharing and learning?

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IDEO's Sally Madsen

Posted by Sam Moskwa at Aug 19, 2009 02:54 AM
Innovation that Sticks
For innovation to stick you need glue - social capital, the people capital; social capital is often referred to as the glue that holds community together.

Innovation and Support (Paul Light's four areas of entrepreneurship)
Established entrepreneurs mentoring local enterpenuers on Eskills:
The person: the leader's visionary, driven personality;
The new ideas: the new solution,the new partner;
The opportunity: the timing and resource are put together to achieve the idea;
The organisation: proactive organisations that delivers without micro managing the new strategies and new partnerships.

Innovation and Negoitation
Meaningful conversation based on IFIP (International Funders of Indigenous Peoples)have a view of Shared Indigenous Giving Principles are the Four R's: the principles of reciprocity, responsibility, respect and relationship.

Best Sam

IDEO's Sally Madsen

Posted by Sally Madsen at Aug 19, 2009 03:16 PM
Sam, these are great principles. I've seen organizations that specialize in supporting the entrepreneur, others that thrive on idea generation, others with expertise for successful implementation and sustainability. Have you (and others) seen examples of organizations that take a multi-faceted approach like the one you outlined? It's always wonderful to learn from successful examples and it would be great to share some of them in this discussion.

Video: Sally Madsen, Designer of Social Impact at IDEO

Posted by katrina heppler at Aug 19, 2009 01:32 PM
Hi everyone :-) I had the great pleasure to meet up with Sally at IDEO last week to do a quick interview on the amazing work she is doing. Feel free to check out this vid which features Sally sharing insights on design thinking, Ripple Effect, and IDEO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNag-28Bcak

Cheers!
Katrina
www.envisionGood.tv

What makes innovations stick

Posted by Paul Rigterink at Aug 19, 2009 05:40 PM
I have a project in the state of Cordoba, Colombia SA that I finance myself. The innovations that are of most interest to the people of this region are innovations that produce jobs and products that can be sold for a profit. In the area of water security, they are most interested in micro irrigation systems since this allows them to grow crops when others cannot. They know that Moringa can produce potable water but they are more interested in growing Moringa for animal feed and for food security. The engineers at the University of Cordoba provide day to day contact but they often lack the agriculture supplies that they need such as veterinary supplies, fertilizer, chemical sprays, etc. I introduced Obama campaign buttons and low cost sports equipment with great success. Many people are depressed since they have had to live their whole life in poverty. Conquering depression and hopelessness are an important aspect of my project. For more information on the "Mas Dinero" project see my web site at http://home.comcast.net/~prigter/site/

What makes innovations stick

Posted by Sally Madsen at Aug 21, 2009 12:41 PM
Yes, the importance of money-making can't be underestimated!

Doing field research in Ghana and Kenya, we have used a set of illustrations of different jobs and businesses-- asking people questions such as, What job would you wish for for your son/daughter? What job is most respected? What job is the most fun? A common theme is that the best and most fun job is the one that makes the most money.

Thanks for sharing your work and approach, Paul.

Ghana and Kenya

Posted by Paul Rigterink at Aug 21, 2009 05:50 PM
I gave 100 of my Obama campaign buttons to my friends who are starting BOP projects in Ghana and Kenya. In Colombia, the most popular Obama campaign button has a picture of Michelle Obama and her name. The button with the picture of the Obama family also is very popular. The Colombian Government, University, military, and church leader personnel as well as the BOP farmers (and FARC) are doing everything posssible to make sure my "Mas Dinero" project is successful so that they can show Michelle, Sasha, and Malia that they are good people. In general, I give the buttons to BOP personnel who are over sixty; their reaction is wonderful.

design thinking to promote wellbeing

Posted by jo davidson at Aug 20, 2009 02:42 AM

I agree Sally, design starts with talking to people (for the discovery of new ideas and building partnerships) - it helps that the value of design can be used many times over for social impact, in creating innovation through collaboration, and in striving for harmony, design is essential for health.
 
With human-centered design, taking a multi-faceted approach to engaging communities (with the focus on need, identifying problems, and executing solutions) - making connections is an important element for seeding innovation. Like tending a garden, the organic growth lies inside the people themselves - with a community cultivating and engaging themselves at a level of awareness and resourcefulness -(in learning to create their own products and services etc) to avoid what Paul was talking about, the fall-out from poverty (in depression, despair and the hopelessness of lack.) I agree too, creating better, more sustainable products and services, by design (through social innovation) can also level the wellbeing for all. By innovating to improve access, through collaborative design, it's a case of, -as above so below- the glue has to melt, before it can stick, indeed, design has the greatest impact when it is put in the hands of everyone

good luck, with the ripple effect.

Creating Knowledge Network

Posted by DanielBassill at Aug 20, 2009 02:25 PM
I attended a water summit a couple of years ago, hosted by the India Development Coalition of America, http://www.idc-america.org/. I learned a great deal about the water issues in India, and in other parts of the world.

My advise to this group was that they become a knowledge hub, with a library of information links that intended to collect and share "everything that is known" about water issues.

I pointed to the Tutor/Mentor Connection library, http://tinyurl.com/T-MC-Library, as an example.

The work that the Ripple Effect project and its partners are doing illustrates what is possible if someone is collecting information about everyone involved in the "water issue" and at the same time gathering donors and benefactors together with the goal that they interact, build understanding and ultimately provide resources to one or many of the organizations listed in the library.

There are huge values to hosting such a library, beyond becoming the "hub" for anyone who wants to be involved in solving this problem. On the T/MC site I have a section of links titled "process improvement, creativity and innovation"- http://tinyurl.com/TMC-innovation-links

These illustrate how knowledge and hard work stimulates creativity and innovation. If someone is collecting examples of what everyone is doing, then everyone can look at those ideas and innovate improvements. As long as someone keeps updating the information, the annual improvements can represent best practices that challenge everyone else to get better at what they do.

I think that innovation can be stimulated in any social benefit area if someone(s) are building knowledge libraries like this, and if donors are included.

Creating Knowledge Network

Posted by Ian Jones at Aug 20, 2009 02:32 PM
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Field knowledge

Posted by jim falkiner at Aug 21, 2009 08:13 AM
I think this point has been made, but I might be able to add another perspective to the conversation. Psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi's research led to the following conclusion that has recently been seconded in Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Outliers". This is that significant domain knowledge, expertise, is essential for successful creativity. Csikszentmihalyi describes this as many years of preparation, either in school or an area of interest. In formal education this means an advanced degree in a domain then working in the field associated with that domain. This takes maybe ten years. Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours to prepare one to make significant innovative contribution to a field (i.e. the world).

While many development professionals have such experience, I'm going to claim that many don't. That's normal and to be expected. The populations being served have already logged their 10,000 hours, at least with the particular problem begging an innovative solution.

So...any innovative solution that will stick, must be a product of both top down and bottom up collaboration. If I use music for analogical explanation then, to get more innovations to stick, professionals may want to orchestrate more strategically and conduct more collaboratively.

Field knowledge

Posted by Sally Madsen at Aug 21, 2009 12:46 PM
Well said. Who are the "experts", anyway? The people who experience things day in and day out, the locals who are already trying to address challenges. A fresh perspective or approach from the outside should be grounded in this experience and reality.

Five principles for scaling up innovations

Posted by Sally Madsen at Aug 21, 2009 01:25 PM
From Bill Easterly--

"There is a lot of discussion in aid on scaling up small-scale successes in aid to reach many more potential beneficiaries. But what things can be scaled up? Here are some principles so simple that they would be embarrassing except that they are routinely violated in aid."

Read here: http://blogs.nyu.edu/[…]/five_simple_principles_for_sca.html

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