 Welcome everyone to this presentation. My name is Joss Goldster. I'm going to walk you through a high level overview to our Systems Innovation Labs guide. You'll find the full guide on our website. So this is the contents that we'll be covering today. It's how to set up a Systems Innovation Lab. We'll then go into the process that's involved in running a lab and we'll talk a bit about facilitation towards the end. So what is a social lab or a Systems Innovation Lab? I'll be using those two terms interchangeably here. This is a definition taken from Said Hassan who wrote the book on the subject. A social lab is a strategic approach towards addressing complex social challenges. As a strategy it isn't too hard to grasp. It can be stated simply bring together a diverse, committed team and take an experimental, prototyping-based approach to addressing challenges systemically at a root cause. So that's the idea of a social lab. It's a relatively new idea, maybe a couple of decades old. What we're talking about here are Systems Innovation Labs. Very similar. It's a little bit more orientated towards Systems Thinking. Systems Innovation Labs are open, collaborative spaces for the co-creation of solutions to complex social and environmental challenges. It's good to draw the analogy with the traditional concept of a lab. So just as we have science labs for our technical challenges where we experiment in safe to fail environments Systems Innovation Labs aims to do the same for the complex societal challenges. So we're all aware of the traditional lab but that's obviously focused on science and more technical problems. This is a similar concept we're taking an issue of experimental approach but now it's dealing with complex systems which makes it quite different as we'll see. So why do we need a lab and why now it's related to this idea of a wicked problem the rise of these very complex problems? In our economy, in society and environmental challenges and so forth we know that these require new approaches and new ways of bringing people together to tackle those problems. The lab approach has emerged recently as a way to respond to situations that are complex in nature and kind of outside the box. So the kind of key aspects of a lab it is an approach to doing systems change. It's not theoretical systems thinking it's not ideas and models from systems change it's actually a practical thing where we try to do systems change where we try to bring people together and iterate through a process of them trying to solve the problem for themselves. So it's an approach to doing systems change is one way of understanding them. It's also a space, the idea of a lab that conjures up illusions of space the traditional concept of a lab is a place. So it's a place for convening diverse actors it's also about experimentation a method for exploring complex issues experimentation is at the heart of that and it's about collaboration collaboration is very much central to systems change and this is a way of enabling collaboration and the co-creation of solutions. The lab approach is based upon systems thinking and focuses on changing the structure of systems as a systemic approach we're interested in how to change the structure of systems. It represents a method for applying these ideas of systems thinking putting them into practice to really try and change the system so it's holistic in its consideration of challenges and solutions. It's an open approach I think this is a very important aspect to it these are platforms open platforms for co-creating solutions open spaces for collaboration and alignment around an issue so they bring together diverse actors no one organization can do it you need to create a big ecosystem of actors and this is what it's about it's creating an open space to bring those different actors together to work around a problem rather than dividing it up so that it fits into the existing organizational structures that's an important issue we're dealing with something complex here and we have to do that in a holistic way and that means we can't divide it up and divide it out into those different organizations or take it out into those different organizations we have to bring people together around the issue where it is in the case of this they're not inside any organization that is removed from the problem but simply embedded within the local context where the issue is being experienced so it's a collaborative approach the nature of wicked problems is such that no one organization can affect meaningful change system changes about the alignment of actors within an ecosystem to realize the emergence of new patterns and behavior, kind of high level functions and collaboration is really core to that the structures that will enable collaboration that's the big part the aim of the lab is to create a collaborative platform where actors that would otherwise not agree or like each other can come together to realize collective ends experimentation is a key aspect of the lab approach we're not trying to execute on a predefined plan or have a conception of what the solution is yet we're trying to figure out we're trying to learn together what that might be and that requires experimentation as problems exist in the space of unknown solutions as such we have to take an experimental approach to develop responses like the labs of yesterday social innovation labs are not driven to execute on a predefined solution but are a process of experimentation and innovation labs are action orientated but they're also spaces for learning they involve a constant interplay between action and learning what we call action learning they are grounded in action in trying to change systems we don't actually know how to do that within these different contexts there's a lot of learning going on at the same time at the same time that we're doing we're learning and that's what labs are about they're creating these safe to fail environments where we can experiment so as to learn rapidly and try to find solutions labs are a new concept but there's already many of them out there in the world we have food labs sustainable food lab is one very successful example but many others health labs, energy labs living labs in cities to try and change different areas of communities within cities experiment with new solutions there there's educational labs and so on so that was a very high level overview of what a lab is we're going to now dig into how to set up a lab and what we will need to do that in different aspects so we're going to have to create some kind of context around why we're doing this what is the purpose of the lab the collaboration and methods for experimentation so the context we're going to need to create some kind of overarching narrative to frame the issue and create the initial context for coming together to start a lab we need a reason what is it we're doing, why are we doing it this is not about providing solutions it's about creating the context for setting up a lab it's not about saying that we have a pre-defined solution but instead it's opening questions trying to frame the issue in new ways to reveal new dimensions to the challenge and set that initial kind of context that attracts the members into form part of this process of trying to figure out solutions so it's about creating space the lab space should be outside as I was mentioning it's best to have it outside of any kind of traditional organisational setting and try and get people out of their comfort zone into the environment where the problem is really being experienced on just like a lab we do things practically in a lab it provides space where people can explore the issue in a physical way so it's an attractive space it should attract people in these organisations don't have to be there the individuals don't have to be there you're going to have to be attracting them in if you're going to get them there so you want to make it fun, experimental letting people express different dimensions to themselves is important also we need to create a kind of context it's integrated you have to be kind of where the problem is and have all the things you need at hand this is about rapid iteration and experimentation if you want to do that you're going to have to have the things you need to do that you can't wait a few months for a grant or permission for this or that it's like being in a lab where you have all those tools around you all those different chemicals or whatever it is and you're able to quickly mix them together so the lab space is going to have to be kind of in a setting where it has everything that it needs has the kind of connectivity in terms of communications and resources and so on collaboration we're going to have to set up some kind of structures for collaboration the aim is to transition a group from a fractured and siloed ego-centred structure to an integrated ego-centred model trying to create ecosystems this requires an understanding of collaboration and the formation of structures to enable the formation of shared intent amongst the group considerations here we go through some of those in the guide a question of having everyone represented at the table there's also questions around power dynamics and how you deal with those we need some kind of systematic method or process for doing experimentation it can't just be randomly exploring anything these are safe to fail environments for exploration the aim is to maximize learning through constant iteration so it is a systematic process of experimentation it's not a random one we iterate through this process learning about the system, adjusting our assumptions and refining our hypothesis so it's very much like the scientific method we need to kind of embed this at the core of what we're doing we need to formulate some kind of hypothesis about what might work or how the system works then we test that hypothesis we do an experiment we intervene in the system we create some kind of safe to fail environment we can test our little hypothesis that gives us some feedback we can take a look at that and we can learn from it did our hypothesis work was it correct and that learning can feed back into the creation of the next hypothesis or the adjustment we can see do we need to adjust things, do we need to throw it out do we need to start a whole new hypothesis so that's a systematic approach scientific method for doing systems innovation experimenting in the lab so the next section jumps into process a lab is a process for doing systems innovation what we have are a series of guides that walk you through this process and it's really the heart of what we're doing here so this process is a combination of the key aspects required to do systems change it takes a compact form so the facilitators can use it as the foundations to scaffold their lab the contents of the guys should be complimented and fleshed out by the facilitator with additional material so this is really the heart of the whole systems innovation process or lab so it's composed of four main dimensions to systems innovation systems thinking to understand what we're doing as a system to be able to embrace and work with complexity we'll go into these now in a second so systems mapping to map out and understand the structure and dynamics of the system to envision alternative futures and points for intervening in the system so systems building, developing platforms connecting people and resources in new ways and scaling change as we all know same old thinking will create the same old results thus we need to start by changing our ways of thinking and looking at the world in new ways we need a new paradigm the aim is to elevate our thinking and vision of the system from seeing not just parts but to seeing and understanding the whole system systems thinking is going to help us with we need to learn to recognize and work with complexity rather than pushing against it so we're trying to walk the members through a process of changing their paradigm of becoming aware of their ways of thinking their reductionist ways of thinking and changing that to a more holistic vision so they have a better opportunity to see the whole system rather than just seeing the parts and that creates kind of a radical new space of opportunity and innovation so it starts with critical thinking trying to become aware of our ways of thinking and motivations systems change as much a kind of personal change is about change out there in the system we need to be aware of ourselves we need to be reflexive how our ways of thinking are motives influencing the systems change process we introduce the new paradigm and systems theory through all the different models holistic thinking synthetic thinking so on and so forth systems modeling we start to try and understand what we're doing what we're doing with this system and complexity theory again an appreciation for how complex systems work and how we might work with complexity rather than push against it so that's the first section and then it comes to systems mapping we should not change a system without first gaining a deep understanding of its overall structure and workings and this is a key premise you're not going to get the results that you want you're going to get unintended consequences if you don't have a deep understanding of the system to do that you need to map it out the aim of systems mapping is to give us an in-depth analysis of the current state of the system so these guides here will walk you through the different tools you need to start to map out your system it's firstly the basics of systems mapping that basic kind of language actor mapping for mapping out actors in the system their values models and incentives causal loop and system dynamics models looking at the causal relationships the underlying feedback loops and so on also the iceberg model there and multi-level maps for mapping out the system on its different levels so that systems mapping we then dive into systems change we've got we've changed our way of thinking to a more holistic paradigm with map the system out to get an understanding of how it's working and so forth and now we can start thinking about actually trying to change that system trying to intervene so this is a lot about understanding transition processes systems change is really about working with transitions in complex systems so here we talk a lot about transitions through different models and how to influence those changes how to influence the transition and identify leverage points and working with context is also an important part of that so we start off by trying to understand transitions we use this framework of three horizons model for change very useful and also the two loops model which is another one for understanding transitions but it's more focused on the connection relationship between the old regime and the new emerging alternatives that's two loops model for transitions we look at leverage points how to intervene in the system and narratives for change telling stories create future visions for the realization of constructive change so that's some systems change we're trying to understand the transition process and how we might influence it in a positive direction so the final section in this process this series of guides here is systems building the job of the systems innovator is develop collaborative ecosystems that align diverse actors in new and synergistic ways so we're really building networked organizations we need to understand something about that the key aspects to consider and building collaborative networks diverse actors and realizing systemic impacts so networks essential to that how do we foster and develop networked organizations through platform design how do we create new value models that work to align actors within local ecosystem how do we start to work with negative externalities and reincorporate them to get something more sustainable how do we scale change work with network to scale further faster and remain agile and then think about impact how do we assess the impact that systems change initiative is having so that we can know where to invest our resources and what's working what's not working etc so that's kind of the process of the center of the systems innovation lab we're now going to talk a bit about facilitation how do we facilitate that process when we're running a lab running a lab will require someone to support and guide members through the process you do need a facilitator the job of the facilitator is about helping a group to identify common objectives and offering a process to achieve those while maintaining neutrality so it's the skill and the arts of leading people through processes towards agreed objectives in a manner that encourages participation creativity and ownership by all involved the essence of the facilitation is about enabling process we're creating a space area platform for co-creation other people are actually going to create the solutions the facilitator is just helping them work through that process of doing that so a facilitation role is to create conducive context to plan the process inspire creativity promote transparency adapt process as needed create the flow of activities so they're stringing things together and they're adapting them based on how the participants are doing and what's what's needed and their aim is trying to help groups become more coherent think together aligned experimental collaborative by the members sharing ideas being open listening thinking problem solving that's the role of the facilitator in the guide we go more into facilitation there we cover all of this in more depth so I encourage you to go and look at that the guide is created commons it's open source so you're free to go and download it use it as you see fit we do recommend that you have a facilitator someone experienced and has knowledge in doing this if you're planning to run a lab so this is the first version it's still kind of in beta mode we're iterating through it and learning to see what works and updating it over time